


Rescue

by Punkpoemprose



Category: Frozen (2013)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Different First Meeting, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Animal Rescue, College Student Anna, Crush at First Sight, Dog Sven, Elsa & Kristoff (Frozen) Friendship, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Falling In Love, First Love, First Meetings, Hans Being an Asshole, Hurt/Comfort, Lumberjack Kristoff, Past Abuse, Past Anna/Hans (Frozen), Past Relationship(s), Sick Character, Sick Elsa, frohanna, snow sisters
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-12-23
Updated: 2015-07-21
Packaged: 2018-03-17 10:55:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 33,274
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3526613
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Punkpoemprose/pseuds/Punkpoemprose
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kristoff Bjorgman has lived in the mountains beyond Arendelle his entire life, but realizes he cannot stay there forever and moves into the city below. Within weeks of moving his world is turned upside down when his only friend, a big dog named Sven, runs away from home. In his search he meets a young redheaded college student and becomes part of her world.<br/>Modern AU. Kristanna. Multi-Chapter.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Meeting

**Author's Note:**

> This piece was originally a oneshot I wrote for the twenty five days of Kristanna. Since then, however I've decided to clean it up and continue it. I've never done a modern AU before so questions, comments, concerns and such would be appreciated in this matter.

                Never before in his life had Kristoff been so frantic. It had been days and no matter how far and wide he searched, Sven was nowhere to be seen. He had looked high and low, for the big Pyrenean mountain dog, but to no avail. He was beginning to lose hope, his heart was broken and he was only thinking the worst.

                “I’m sorry Mr. Bjorgman, but most shelters in our area follow the seventy two hour rule. If a pet is not adopted or recovered by its owner in seventy two hours many over capacity shelters will simply put the animal down, especially if it is an older pet.”

                Kristoff felt as if someone had shoved a knife into his chest, “You don’t understand I’ve called everywhere! I’ve done everything I can, lost posters, online pet finder sites, I’ve called every shelter in the phone book… look, could you please check again… I…” He stopped for a moment, eyes welling up with tears, so choked up that he could hardly speak, “He’s my best friend, he’s a Great Pyrenees, really big loveable boy… white and grey fluffy fur and he had a collar on, his name is Sven. If you could just please…”

                “Like I said Mr. Bjorgman, I’m sorry but he’s just not here. I’ve checked all our records and there’s no Pyrenees here, nothing even close. We haven’t had any bigger dogs in a couple weeks.” The woman did sound as if she was actually sorry. Tired and wishing to be elsewhere, but yet genuinely concerned for him and his furry friend. “If you’ve called all the other shelters my best suggestion is to go out to the edge of town. Over on Stanley Road there’s a newer shelter. A few of our old volunteers started it up, it’s a no kill for older dogs. Maybe your Sven ended up there.”

                Kristoff expressed his interest though the woman maintained they were highly unlikely to have Sven and that it would be a miracle to find him there. Kristoff’s shattered heart knew it was true, but he still had to try. After all Sven had done for him throughout the years it was the very least he could do.

                Taking down the address the woman on the phone read off to him, and thanking her profusely Kristoff hung up the phone on its receiver with a shaking hand. He sighed for a moment, tears still in his eyes as his hand combed back a messy pile of blonde hair. It was just his luck that Sven would run away. It was their first week in a completely new house, in a completely new town, and of course the big moose of a dog had decided to break free of his backyard run to go free and explore the town.

                That would have been fine in their old home up in the mountains, but now that they had moved into the city below, that sort of action was much more dangerous. Not only were there cars here, but also dog catchers and those who would wish to do harm to the loving dog. His guilt was overwhelming at the thought of his best and only friend getting hurt. He even felt guilty for moving in the first place.

He had always known that he had to leave the woods one day. His adoptive parents had cared for him well and when they had set him up with a mountain cabin of his own it had been a Godsend, but he needed to work, and he wanted more than anything to catch his destiny.

                Starting out by losing the one he cared for right off the back was not how he planned to do so. With the last of his faith Kristoff grabbed the keys to his beat up truck out of the kitchen drawer he had already designated for junk. He ran outside in jeans, a hoodie, and boots, more than prepared to get his best friend back.

                He tried to distract himself from the thoughts that plagued his mind in the truck, but it was to no avail. He had tried everything, maintaining perfect unbreakable eye contact with the road, listening to old rock and roll songs on the radio, nothing helped. Everything reminded him of Sven.

_You ain't nothin' but a hound dog_  
Cryin' all the time  
You ain’t nothin but a hound dog  
Cryin' all the time  
Well, you ain't never caught a rabbit  
And you ain’t no friend of mine

                Kristoff switched off the radio wondering if the world was against him or if he was simply being sensitive. He couldn’t decide which however because before he could think much on it he saw a sign that was his only hope for salvation. It was wooden, freshly painted, and put into the ground on the side of the road. He was in the outskirts now, more in the country than in the city. It was more of a place in which he found comfort than the place in which he and Sven had moved.

                The sign read, _Green Knoll Rescue and Rehabilitation._ Below it was a well painted green paw and a short passage, _And then God made Dog and Man was Complete_.

                Kristoff, though trying not to get his hopes up, turned down the dirt driveway and thought for a moment that this was certainly the type of place Sven would run to. His heart was full of hope as he wished for that to be true. He went down the long driveway and glanced at the apple trees on all sides. It looked like home to him, and his hope was that it had to Sven as well.

                Once Kristoff had parked his big black truck beside a small silver car in the small dirt lot he walked in the front door of a small home like building that’s front door boasted a red “always open” sign. Personally Kristoff wondered how they could be always open, but he didn’t doubt it, when someone loved animals enough to rescue them and give them a home, they certainly were the type who was also willing to keep their doors open at all times.

                Kristoff made a silent promise that he would be more of a charitable heart once he found Sven. He would do anything to help another man, woman or child avoid the kind of heartbreak he was currently experiencing. “Hello?”

                Entering the room completely Kristoff saw a young woman sitting at a desk smiling, “Hello.” She said with a grin. “Can I help you find a forever friend today?” She asked, obviously she had experience with this before.

                “Uh, well actually I’m hoping to find a forever friend that was lost.” He walked closer to the desk where the woman sat. He tried not to seem imposing as he approached her. He often did due only to his height and broadness. Truly he would not hurt a fly unless he was attacked. He put his hands in his pockets and slouched down. “You see I’ve tried every other shelter in the city and I’m beginning to lose hope.”

                The red head frowned softly as if she could truly feel his pain, “Well I hope your friend is here then.” She said, looking up to the large blonde man before her.

She could tell from the moment he walked in that he was in pain. She was perceptive like that, and it killed her inside every time she saw anyone feeling that way. She knew the pain of feeling alone and broken inside. She knew the feeling of losing ones that you loved regardless of how long you lost them. It always broke a heart into shards.

                Kristoff felt his heart strengthened a bit by the young woman’s words. She seemed to be only a few years younger than him at most and she had such life around her that for a moment she made him believe that there was not a doubt that Sven would be there. The warmth she exuded was like nothing he had ever felt before.

                “So what can you tell me about your friend?” She asked, plopping a big blue binder atop the lightly stained pinewood desk. She hoped and prayed that the man’s dog would be there.

                “Uh well he’s a male, approximately five years old.” He paused for a moment as the lady flipped to the male section and moved to another area. “He’s a Pyrenean mountain dog…”

                He was cut off by her snapping the book closed and hopping out of her seat with a gasp. “Oh my goodness, Sven?” She asked, but did not give him enough time to answer before saying, “Why didn’t you just say so, follow me!”

                Kristoff nearly had a heart attack as she lead him through a door behind the desk to a large room full of cages in which a handful of dogs were being kept. He could find no words to speak, too in shock by the mention of his dog’s name.

                The woman whistled loudly and the dogs in the room ran to the fronts of their cages, barking loudly with tails wagging, obviously happy and healthy as they could be. “Sven!” She exclaimed happily as she approached the cage at the very end, “I think there’s someone here to see you.”

                Kristoff’s heart leapt as he saw the first bit of fluffy white fur approach the cage door, and was even more over joyed as the woman unlocked the cage. It took Sven no time at all to race out of the metal surrounded space and into Kristoff’s open arms. He had been kneeling down on one knee on the room’s cement floor waiting for the dog, and had of course been knocked over with the dog’s exuberant dash towards him. Plenty of licks were being made to his face before he tried to sit up only to hear the girl laughing.

                “Yup, you’re definitely his owner!” She said with a sad smile, “He’s been a little bit shy to the other volunteers except me, and I’ll admit I’ll be a little sad to see him go.” She tapped her hand to her outer thigh and within a moment Sven had jumped off Kristoff to approach her instead. “We’ve gotten to be good pals in the past couple days, huh big guy?” She said as she kneeled down to pet the dog between his ears.

                Kristoff smiled fondly at the woman, her red hair shown in the light and her smile was bright and white. She had a blush on her face, obvious on her pale skin, which made her freckles even more obvious to his eyes. He saw in her everything which he personally held close to his heart, and within a moment he had formed his first crush. He blushed a bit as she played with Sven, Twenty One years old, just moved away from home, and his first and only crush was the woman who had saved his dog. He wondered at the duality of the world. Had Sven come here out of fate, so that they would meet? Or was it simply because she had saved Sven that he was finding himself so attracted to a woman he had only just met?

                “So before I turn him over to you I’m going to need your name.” She said with a laugh as Sven licked her hand and the man sat up. “I can’t just go giving dogs away to men I don’t know the names of.”

                Kristoff smiled up at the woman, “Kristoff.” He said as he began to stand up, “Kristoff Bjogman.” He offered his hand to the woman, who immediately took it in for a surprisingly firm handshake.

                “You can call me Anna.” She said simply before leading him back to the office to fill out some minor paperwork.

                Kristoff dotted his last i and crossed his last t before again shaking hands with Anna. “I don’t know how I could ever even begin to repay you.” He said to her as they shook hands, “Sven is all I have, and I don’t know what I would have done without him.”

                Anna smiled genuinely, obviously impressed by the love that Kristoff held for his dog. “Well you don’t have to thank just me.” She said laughing a bit, “There’s a lot of volunteers who work here to make sure the older dogs stay out of kill shelters and find a home. We also have a handful of puppies and younger dogs here, but our main focus is the old guys and gals.”

                Kristoff nodded to her a scratched Sven between the ears, “Well I appreciate everyone who works here in that case. What you all do here is really amazing.”

                “Though I do have a small request if you did want to thank me.” She said after a few minutes of silence, a bit unsure but trying to be bold as she watched in admiration of the way Kristoff was attending to the big dog.

                “Name it.” Kristoff replied simply. She had given him Sven, he would gladly give her the world if he could.

                “I get off at five.” She said smiling demurely, “And I’d like to go out to Maggie’s diner over in the old Italian section of town for a burger.”

                Kristoff was taken aback for a moment before smiling, somehow someway she had caught his interest in her, and for some reason or another she was interested too. Before he could even say a word, Sven barked.

                Anna winking at Kristoff chuckled, “It’s a date.”


	2. Making Good

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Kristoff takes Anna out for dinner.

                His hands were shaking as he drove down the winding country road for the second time that day. Dust was kicked up by the wheels of his old truck, clouding the thick late august air with brown. He wasn’t driving all the fast, however they had been going through a bit of dry spell as of late and even the slightest move could cause the dust to fly. He wasn’t sure whether it was fortunate or un that they hadn’t had any wind come through.

                The weather was hardly the cause of his anxiety. He knew that his shaking was only due to his nervousness, something which he felt like a large knot in his stomach. He took a deep breath and stretched out his fingers, gripping and unwrapping his fingers from the wheel, but he could not find the power within himself to make the quaking stop.

                Being the man he was, strong, confident, if not a bit stubborn, he tried to calm himself down. His mind was telling him he was still anxious over the stressful day he had endured and that it was made worse by the even more stressful weeks before. His heart, however, knew that there was much more going on than just that and it leapt to ensure he knew it.

                Flipping on the radio, as was his nervous habit, he heard the Beatles. Music always made him feel better, that band in particular being a favorite of his, it soothed the beast within him regardless of his mood.

                “I say high, you say low. You say why and I say I don't know, oh no! You say goodbye and I say hello.” He tapped the steering wheel in rhythm to the song’s beat and sighed as he saw that he was coming up upon the building.

                Parking in the driveway he wiped his sweaty palms on his blue jeans and switched the engine off. Exiting the vehicle he continued to hum the song, approaching the building. Music gave him heart, whether he was mad or scared or stressed he always liked to listen to a song, and maybe sing along from time to time. Since birth he had always been the “whistle while you work” type of guy. He blamed his upbringing a bit for this as there was never a silent moment in his home.

                “Come on.” He muttered to himself as he approached the door. He tried to shake off the last of his nerves. He had dealt with women before with no trouble, why should Anna be any different?

“It’s not even a date.” He reminded himself in a huff as he made his way up the stairs and onto the recently built pine board porch of the shelter.

                Though he chided himself Kristoff could not help but be nervous. After all she herself had called it a date and though it was likely just a turn of phrase it caused his heart to leap. He tried to remind his heart that he didn’t believe in love at first sight, but it ignored him and went on pounding.

                Sighing a final sigh he turned to the knob and decided to play things cool. She was just a woman and he was just a man, nothing more, nothing less.

                “Hey!” Anna said happily as she popped her head out of the door behind the desk. She had heard the bell over the door ring, and had been expecting him. “Five minutes, okay? I’ve got a little guy overheating back here!”

                Just as she had popped out, she popped back in. She was in a hurried tizzy over something. This was made very obvious to him by her rapid motions and brief contact. After wondering at her words for a moment he pieced together that one of the dogs must be in need of assistance. “Can I help?” He shouted back, already moving towards the door.

                A mumbled affirmative came through the half closed wooden door, and so Kristoff continued behind the desk and into the tiled back room. There he found Anna, sleeves rolled up past her elbows, leaning over a stainless steel groomers sink.

                Walking closer he observed that within it was a little puff of white fur looking far more like a Star Trek tribble than any kind of dog he had seen. The little ball of fluff was currently half dampened and squirming in Anna’s hands.

                “Could you grab the hose and spray him while I hold him down? It’s pretty hard to do both at once.” The creature was almost wiggling away from her as she gestured towards the hose, requiring her to hold it tightly with both hands, wet fur covering her dainty hands.

                Nodding he picked up the hose that was attached to the grooming station. It had a little shower head at its top and turning the knobs on the sink he sprayed the tiny creature with cool water. It yipped and squirmed around, trying to escape the water and her hands, but to no avail. Anna had him in her grasp firmly now, and with Kristoff’s help the little guy was getting rinsed and wasn’t going to go anywhere but where he was.

                “Grab a towel?” She asked, nodding her head in the direction of a glass fronted cabinet which contained many different colored towels. Releasing only one hand from the ball of fluff she took the hose from him kindly, shut it off, and rehung it.

                While she was doing so he did as he was asked, getting a thick, fluffy, dark blue towel with which to dry off the little creature.

                “You did a good job mixing the water temperature.” She said taking the cloth from him and rubbing the small animal dry until it once again became a dog, a particularly fluffy white one at that. Likely from its looks the dog was a mixture between a Shiba Inu and an Alaskan Malamute. “Most times when I get new volunteers they either make the water lava hot or icy cold. It’s like they don’t know that comfortable temperature for dogs is about the same as comfortable temperature for humans. They don’t know that it can shock the dogs and hurt them.”

                Kristoff smiled and shrugged, unused to being complimented for something so simple and unsure of how to react or proceed in such a case. “Who doesn’t know how to wash a dog?” He asked curiously as his eyes wandered from the pup to her. Her cheeks were a ruddy color, her eyes shining aqua blue. Her hair was frizzy, out of place and flying away from the two braids on either side of her face. He grinned like an idiot, she was beautiful.

                “You’d be surprised.” She replied in a huff, tucking a bit of hair that had fallen in front of her face away from her eyes before returning to the sink and removing the slightly damp puppy from it. “Isn’t that better Olaf?” She asked nuzzling the small creature and scratching gently its food swollen tummy before embracing it and returning him to his kennel.

                “You have the fan right on you but the heat just makes you melt, huh?” She asked as she put a bowl of icy cool water in the surprisingly open space with him, locking the opening before turning back.

                Kristoff smiled at her attentive care towards the little pup. He knew that she had loved and cared for his Sven in just the same way. He could see it in her eyes; she just loved animals of all types, shapes, and sizes. It helped him relax around her further, especially hearing her speak to the dog as he sometimes, meaning of course always, spoke to Sven. Meeting someone with a love of dogs equal to his own made him feel remarkably happy, something he had felt lacking in his heart since the move.

                “If you don’t mind the smell of wet dog we can go now. If you’d rather though, I can change. I have clothes here.”

                Kristoff laughed beside himself for a moment then smiled broadly at the red head. “Well if you don’t mind that that’s what my truck smells like we’ll be just fine.”

                Anna smiled and wiped her arms and hands on the towel before tossing it in an awaiting hamper. Walking up very close to him she extended her hand to him, which he took gently. “You passed.”

                Confused to say the very least Kristoff held onto her hand and she fell into step at his side, crossing the room to the door which he released her hand to open for her. “Passed what?”

                His brow arched with the question. He felt very relaxed with her, he attributed this to her happy and excitable demeanor. His shoulders relaxed and the way he had held her hand had felt natural to him. He supposed that her energy was contagious because he had never before felt the way he felt around her. At the absolute very least he felt far less self-conscious now that they were speaking and acting on a semi familiar basis.

                “My first test.” She teased waving to a newly arriving volunteer as she exited through the door with him. “I barely know you or anything about you Kristoff, of course I had to test you before I go out with you. That’s lead me to some bad things in the past.”

                She laughed and smiled a little bit at that, but Kristoff saw something in her eyes that told him that she had a very good reason for doing what she did. He wasn’t one to pry, especially knowing so little about her in return. He chuckled a little in return and closed the main door, which he had also been holding for her, behind them.

                She looped her arm through his rather than holding his hand this time. It felt less foreign to him and it made him smile. It was a friendly sort of action, like she was saying something about him, but not too much. He had a feeling that he would enjoy getting to know Anna more as they walked to his pickup.

                Out of his own curiosity he asked her something truly important. “Am I going to be tested anymore tonight?”

                She smiled and opened the door for herself. “Not tonight, but if I decide to see you again you certainly will be.”

                Content with that answer he responded, “Well at least I passed the first one.”

                Seeing that she had closed her door he climbed into the driver’s side and belted himself in before turning on the old hulking metal thing. The radio turned on as soon as the engine turned over and Anna immediately was taken by it.

                “Jail house rock!” she said, her foot already tapping to the song’s familiar beat. “I love Elvis!”

                Kristoff grinned broadly as he watched her, the landscape passing by them on either side as they made their way to the restaurant. “You pass.”

***

                “Ah thank God, I was starving!” The redhead said gleefully as she found herself yet again in the passenger seat of Kristoff Bjorgman’s truck. He had taken her to diner at her suggested restaurant and had been very kind and friendly to her throughout, before and after the meal. They had talked on strange and low risk topics, the weather, the news, where they were from and their mutual love of animals in general, dogs in specific.

                They had also come to realize early on that they both had an affinity for classic rock music, though she admitted afterwards that she usually listened to Pop and Brit Pop in the car. Generally it had an upbeat tune and Kristoff could see the similarity between her attitude and her music preferences.

                She was still feeling something for him that confused her. She really liked Kristoff, and being around him, however she had a knack for rushing into things and the very thought of repeating the past put her on edge. She did not want to pay any attention to the worries of her past, at least the part that made her feel somewhat distant from Kristoff even though his personality pulled her in. Though there was one thing that was of absolute certainty in her mind, and that was she wanted to know more about Kristoff and she wanted to be, at the very least, his friend.

                He was utterly fascinated by her. She was such an odd and quirky soul. She liked Elis Presley equally to Coldplay and would sing along loudly to both. She loved dogs, loathed politics, could eat a burger twice the size in half the time it took him to eat his, and had an ardent love of chocolate the likes of which he had never before seen.

                “I have to admit that was probably the best burger I’ve had since I was a kid.” He laughed then, turning the truck down one of the small city’s side streets. “My Grand Pabbie used to make a mean burger, family recipe.”

                Anna grinned broadly, she felt very comfortable in his presence. Their light conversation had thus far proven to be exhilarating in a sense. That sense of course being that it had been a very long time since she had found anyone to talk to the way she was speaking with him. “Do you have it?”

                “Yeah, but they’re never as good as his. Whenever I try to make them they’re good, but not perfect. He had a way with things, especially cooking and storytelling. It was like magic.”

                Anna laughed gently at the mountain man as they turned down yet another street. She was surprised with his sense of direction particularly considering that he was new in town. She also felt a sudden nagging suspicion that she had forgotten about something, but she simply shook it off.

                “Maybe you can make me one sometime? I’ll make my mom’s potato salad, we could make an event of it!”

                Kristoff took a final turn, smiling as he drove along. “Is this another test?”

                “Nope.” Her voice was singsong and melodic. “Just making sure that I’ll see you again sometime.”

                He parked the car in the driveway before turning to face her. “So you want to see me again?” He asked, of course he’d never been in this sort of situation before, but she seemed sincere, and he liked her company.

                “Of course I want to see you again!” She chided before adding a teasing, “How else would I see Sven?”

                They both laughed, having had a fun night. “Oh and thank you for driving me home, though I live across the street.”

                All the color drained from Kristoff’s face as she brought a hand to his forehead in shock. “I forgot to bring you home!” He shouted, apologizing for a moment upon realizing his forgetfulness.

                “What do you mean?” She asked as she pointed across the street through the rear windshield, “You just pulled into the wrong driveway is all.”

                The color returned to his face, but too suddenly, streaking his cheeks with crimson, “I never even asked where you lived.” He pointed to the home in whose driveway he had parked his truck. “Anna, this is my house.”

                She looked at him wide eyed and with her jaw dropped, coincidences like this didn’t happen all that often, and though they lived in a fairly small city she couldn’t even imagine the odds that something such as this would happen. She called it fate, though Kristoff wondered if it were Sven.

                “Holy crap.” She said pausing for a moment of shocked silence before falling into immediate and jovial laughter. “Wow you’re really new at this huh?”

                He looked like a tomato as he walked her across the street in a gentlemanly manner. He hoped she didn’t think he meant anything improper by driving her to his house automatically. He wasn’t like that, and he didn’t think that she thought he was.

                “Well then, goodnight neighbor.” She said before closing her front door, having given him a smile. Kristoff felt warm inside as he returned across the street.


	3. Emergency

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Kristoff is awoken at five in the morning.

                Kristoff heard a knock on the front door. It was five in the morning, the sun peeking over the horizon so little that the dark sky seemed to be fighting against its light and was thus far winning. He hadn’t awoken with the first knock, but rather with the first bark, Sven’s reaction to the knock. His bark had been anxious, and it made Kristoff shoot out of bed. Something was going on, they could both sense it. The hair on the back of his neck and his arms stood raised. He always had a fairly good sense of when something was going wrong, and despite his tiredness this made him climb from his bed.

                Turning the doorknob, sleep still in his eyes, Kristoff grumbled something along the lines of who in God’s name would be out as such an hour, let alone knocking on his front door. Sven was at his feet, his tail wagging in triumph over awakening his master. He was a good dog, but an even better friend. He had always acted extremely human for being of a different species all together. He was always, whether he knew it or not, a moral compass of sorts for Kristoff. The big dog kept him in line, and was the only one Kristoff usually talked to.

                Being too tired to even check and see who was there Kristoff opened the door and was caught very off guard. He wasn’t sure who he expected to be outside his door, but she certainly wasn’t it.

                Anna looked very out of breath, and it was obvious to even someone as oblivious to Kristoff that she had been crying. He hadn’t seen her since the week before, having not been home himself for the majority of the week. He was a logger and that usually meant waking up at the crack of dawn and falling asleep as soon as he ate dinner and dragged his tired bones to his bed.

                “Kristoff!” She choked out, still catching her breath and speaking before he could even find words in his mind that made up a coherent sentence. “Kristoff can you bring me to the hospital? Please it’s Elsa… she’s… she’s…”

                He could see the wild panic in her eyes, she was obviously worried. “Whoa, whoa, whoa, Anna slow down. What’s going on?” His mind was garbled. He barely comprehended the situation he was in, and he was suddenly and awkwardly aware that he had answered the door in only his boxers.

                “My car won’t start. Please!”

The urgency in her voice finally got through to him completely. He agreed to drive her, quickly mumbling about pants and grabbing the keys to his truck. He saw Sven move towards Anna with his ears pulled back slightly showing his intention to be friendly, and also showing the redhead that he could feel her sadness and fear. He positioned himself underneath her hand and gently nudged up into it with his head.

                Instinctively Sven calmed the human woman as his master tore through their home putting on blue jeans and a dark hoodie before ensuring that he had his car keys. Anna’s fingers meshed into the dog’s fur naturally. Petting it back, the expected motion calmed her slightly as the dog cared for her.

                “Come on.” He said simply as he motioned Sven back into the house and closed the door behind him. The pair rushed to his truck and he was quick to get the motor all revved up and ready to go. They took off quickly, she occasionally piped up to inform him of shortcuts across the city, but was otherwise uncharacteristically silent as they sped along. He was secretly happy that her car hadn’t started. Her head wasn’t in it’s usually place and he was scared to think of what might have happened had she driven in such a condition.

                She didn’t look towards him often, preferring to watch the buildings, trees and streetlights streak by her in wavy patterns of color, light and shadow as they passed them by. Arendelle was an interesting city of interesting people and interesting size. It was large enough to contain a hospital, many government buildings, shops both locally owned and operated and chains. There was a fair amount of restaurants, city parks, and a few schools as well. They had only one movie theater, but also a bowling alley, a roller rink, and an old stage they called the Capitol theatre. They passed much of this as they drove along the roads of the city.

                Despite all that it contained it still felt like a small town. Originally settled by Norwegian immigrants it was a fairly tight knit community. People knew each other by name, and Anna having grown up there her whole life had plenty of people whom she could have called upon for help. It was certainly odd that she had selected Kristoff. He was new to town and they barely knew each other, but all the same she had asked him for help. Something in her soul had told her that it was the correct option.

                She was sure that there was more than his proximity to her home that had caused her to immediately rush to him, but she couldn’t think any more on it than that. She had to focus on her sister at the moment and her mind wouldn’t wander. She supposed she would think more on her reasoning later. All she knew was that she trusted the man driving beside her.

                They pulled into the lot quickly and before Kristoff could even throw the worn out shift into park Anna was out of the vehicle. She hit the ground running, in a dead sprint towards the hospital’s doors. He watched her go and turned the ignition off, taking the key and locking the door before following her, albeit not nearly so fast. He scarcely had any idea of what he was doing or what was even going on. He didn’t want to interrupt anything private by following her, but he wasn’t going to just drive back home and crawl back into bed without knowing she was alright. In fact he couldn’t bring himself to leave unless he was certain that she was alright.

                It was Saturday, one of his very few days off, and one of the few days he didn’t have to drives miles into the countryside to work a strenuous job, but he didn’t think too much on it. He didn’t let the loss of sleep bother him.

                Anna needed his help, and until she asked him to go, he would be there for her. It was the least he could do for her after she had given him back his best friend. It was the least he could do for a neighbor who was thus far the only person he knew in town. Of course he knew that there was more to his wanting to help her, an attraction to her that he could not rid from his mind even in the week since seeing her last, but then again he didn’t necessarily want to clear his mind of her either.

                He finally caught up with her arguing over at the nurse’s station. “I know visiting hours are over, but I just got the call! Please, she needs me.”

                The nurse, a pretty young blonde with blue eyes, looked legitimately sorry for Anna, but at the same time her voice came out frustrated. “I’m sorry miss, however hours won’t start again until eleven.” She glanced down at her watch then back up at the redhead, who was frustrated to the point of tears. “It’ll be a little over five hours, but if they move her out of the Intensive Care Unit before that the Residential Care Facility, as you know, has unlimited visitation hours.”

                Anna turned away from the woman, the tears that had been forming in her eyes finally falling down over her cheeks, but she did not say another word. She had obviously argued all the possible points she could imagine, but her stubborn doggedness and bright personality could not get her what she wanted this time.

                Walking over to one of the wooden red cushioned waiting chairs, she fell into in a heap. Her head ducked down into her hands in defeat. She was trying to get the tears to stop streaming as Kristoff, who had watched the action, followed her and tentatively sat by her side.

                He said nothing; after all, what could he say? His mind was at a loss, he wasn’t even certain of what was going on. He took a deep breath and exhaled slowly, at the very least he was there for her, and he hoped it counted as something, even if he was practically a stranger to her.

                She peeked up at him through her hands then sat up. Her palms wiped at her eyes as she removed the traces of anxious and frustrated tears from her face. Her hands, seeming to not know what to do with themselves fidgeted first with the material of her black shirt and the magenta hoodie she wore over it, her knuckles grazing dark jeans. They were having a very hot and dry July in Arendelle, but the mornings were cool enough to warrant such wear. Her fingers quickly moved from her shirt to her hair, where her hands twisted and turned the end of her long single braid. He could tell just by the look on her face that she didn’t realize she was doing it.

                “They won’t let me see her. The last time they wouldn’t let me see her I went anyway and I want to do that again, but I don’t feel like getting arrested today.”

He looked at her in awe, the tiny easily excitable creature that he had gone on a date with just a week before. “You got arrested?”

                “My mom used to call me ‘obstinate’, the security guards called it ‘a blatant disregard of authority’, and they called the cops on me, but I got away with just a warning. Most people around here understand why I am the way I am.”

                Kristoff nodded although not certain he understood. She needed him and far be it from him to cause her anymore pain than she was already experiencing. He reached his hand out towards her own to comfort her, but he withdrew it before she could see. He set his jaw, teeth together tightly. He didn’t know what to say or what to. After all he hardly knew how to say comforting things to someone he knew well, let alone this woman that he barely knew beyond a seemingly mutual attraction.

                She felt him tense up beside her, he was not a discreet man in his thoughts and actions, and though she wasn’t usually great at reading people knew she was putting him under distress. Sighing exhaustedly she knew that she should tell him to leave, this wasn’t his heartache, it was her own. She was selfish, however in her thoughts. She would ask him if he wanted to leave, but only if it seemed like he didn’t want to stay, and her mind fantasized about him deciding to stay. Elsa’s illness had put a heavy load on her shoulders, and that stress, plus the stresses of school when it was in term, keeping up their house alone, and all the volunteer work she did at the animal shelter left her emotionally drained and exhausted. She had never had anyone to sit beside her the way Kristoff was, and despite the fact that he was fairly uninvested in the grand scheme of her life issues it felt nice to have someone there who cared.

                “Thank you.”

                Kristoff raised a brow curiously, his jaw unclenching at the sound of her soft voice, his muscles relaxing. “For what?”

                Anna looked into his eyes; they were caramel brown and portrayed a softness which relaxed her as well. He really was new at this, and with every realization that he was no love expert her heart fluttered gently. “For driving me to the hospital with zero explanation.”

                He laughed a bit and smiled as he responded, “Well I didn’t have much of a choice now did I Feisty Pants?”

                She blushed crimson and turned away from his gaze, holding her breath for a moment in shock before releasing it. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to inconvenience you.” She inhaled and exhaled shakily, “I was just worried.”

                He did touch her then, cursing himself internally for not thinking before he spoke. His hand grasped her shoulder firmly and reassuringly. “No.” He responded simply, “I didn’t mean that, I was happy to help you, happy to see you again.” He smiled a barely noticeable warmth came to his cheeks. “My mom used to call me that whenever I got really gung ho about something. Feisty Pants is a good thing.”

                His hand was warm and reassuring against her shoulder. Despite the fabric of her t-shirt she felt as if he were touching her skin directly, and something about that felt right. She was still blushing, but now it was less out of embarrassment and more out of something else. “I suppose I do owe you an explanation though, huh?”

                “You don’t owe me anything, but I’m here to listen.” He was suddenly conscious of the fact that he had touched her. As it had been instinctual on his part, he hadn’t realized what he had done until that point. Removing his hand from her he was surprised by how right it felt to comfort her with his touch.

                She sighed, “It’s a long story.”

                “I’m not doing anything today.” While that was not entirely true as he had plenty to do with his day off, he said it because there was nothing that he wanted to do more than to be there for her and listen to what she had to say.

                “I don’t know where to start.”

                He thought for a moment, “Maybe you could start with why we’re here?” Frankly he was still confused as to why they were both sitting in the fluorescent lit, antiseptic scented room, but he wouldn’t press if she didn’t want to explain it.

                Her eyes grew wide, “I didn’t even tell you why I needed to go to the hospital?”

                She blushed heartily, covering her mouth with her open hand. She often got ahead of herself in such a way, and was always embarrassed of her lacking tact afterwards. “I got a call from the hospital that Elsa had woken up in coughing fits and hadn’t been able to breathe. They were letting me know that she had been sent to the ICU and I kind of freaked out.” She paused for a moment to take a deep breath. Her eyes locked with his, “I only have one sister you know?”

                “Elsa is your sister then?” He asked, the pieces finally starting to fall into place in his mind. He was eventually able to piece together a chronological narrative from her partial and confusing ravings of just a couple hours before.

                “Yes.” She said still unsure as to why she hadn’t explained such important details of her life to him as of yet. She was again reminded of how little they knew of each other, how slowly she was trying to take this. They had only gone out once, their communications had been light, they hadn’t talked much about family. “She’s all I have left.”

                Resting his hand upon her shoulder again he looked upon her with soft eyes and a kind smile gracing his lips. “Tell me about her?”

                She smiled, he understood her in a strange way she couldn’t necessarily explain. Most people would have asked the darker questions implied by her statement, such as what had happened to her family, her parents, and the others that cared. He, however had asked about Elsa, the woman that they were sitting in the hospital for.

                “Well, she’s older than me by three years, but we’ve always been close beside that. She looks kind of like my polar opposite, emphasis on polar, she looks like the North Pole.” She laughed at her own joke, lips curling up and parting to reveal smiling white teeth.

                “Her hair is white blonde and her eyes are blue, we have the same face shape and build, but she’s a little taller than me. When we were kids people used to call her Snow Queen because of how pale she was, but that’s just because she was sick. Still though they made her really upset and she cried sometimes about it, so our parents started home schooling us and we stayed inside most of the time. I didn’t get to see her or anyone else, save of course my parents, because in those days she was so scared, sad and sick that she would lock herself in her room.” Her smile from the moment before almost entirely vanished again, changed completely from a bright smile to a strained and sheepish half smile half frown.

                “She started getting better recently, but the doctors think it’s the calm before the storm and I know our parents’ passing wasn’t easy on her. She’s been so stressed out for the past couple years that she’s started having fits like she did as a kid. She actually had to miss the funeral over it.”

                She paused, eyes focusing on the floor before her as if it held something particularly interesting to her. “I had to burry my parents alone.” It was scarcely a whisper, but once it passed her lips her focus returned to Kristoff. She frowned, her brows knitting together with the weight of the painful memory. “Sorry, that was probably a lot more information than you wanted to know.”

                He saw the way her eyes teared up, and he felt heart shattering pain wrack his own chest. He didn’t understand the immediate fondness he felt for the young woman, but ever since they met he had felt for her in ways he had never before felt towards anyone. Her pain was her own, but he could feel some of it, and he was sure that he was falling for her. “It’s alright.” He replied, imagining how not ‘alright’ she felt. “I know it’s not the same, not at all, but I was adopted. My parents died when I was five years old.”

                She looked at him and put her hand in his. “I didn’t know that.”

                “There’s a lot we don’t know about each other.” He responded, relishing the way it felt to have her small dainty hand within his large rough ones. Something in him said that it was right, it felt right, Anna and her touch were right.

                “Maybe we could learn?” She asked, her thoughts less in darkness and more looking forward to the very comforting idea of spending more time with her neighbor. It seemed more and more as if they were being brought together by something magnetic. A force of nature was attracting her to him, and there was nothing she could do to stop it, of course she didn’t want to stop it either.

                Kristoff grinned wondering if this was another one of her plans to get them to see more of each other. He had to admit that despite the weight of the situation, he was happy to see her again. “I would like that.”

***

                Kristoff looked at the sleeping girl leaning against his shoulder. They had been speaking for a while, though he would admit that it was on nothing so dark or important as they had been. However they had spoken for a couple hours never the less. She had told him about her time working at the shelter, the college classes she had signed up for, the other neighbors, her awful car, and the books she had been reading lately.

                He had nodded most of the time while she talked. He wasn’t really a man of many words in anything except debate and teasing, it wasn’t to say that he couldn’t hold up his end of the conversation, he just simply let her lead it. Every so often he would ask questions, but he mainly just listened to her speak. So when she had tired herself out and fell asleep against him, he had just let it happen. She was having a rough morning and the very least he could do was to let her sleep.

                Glancing at the large wall clock above the nurse’s station he read ten thirty. Deciding that he would wake her in a half hour he settled into the chair a little more. Until she awoke he would be left with only his thought to preoccupy him, something that was both relaxing and damnable. Her skin was hot, he could feel her warmth on his skin and it felt as if he were sitting in a direct beam of summertime sunlight. It was calming, as was the slow, rhythmic rise and fall of her chest. He focused on that, the simplicity of her inhaling and exhaling. He didn’t dare to touch her in anyway though his hands ached to touch her face gently, or to wrap his arm around her. He wasn’t the type of man who would touch a woman without her permission, and as she was asleep, he had no intention of waking her. Perhaps when they knew each other a little better he would feel at liberty to touch her gently, but until that day he would be careful not to do anything that could frighten her.

                He had thought about everything she had told him and questioned how he had even gotten himself where he was sitting in the first place. He had just been looking for his dog and had found a beautiful young woman with a sick sister. He hadn’t been looking for Anna, but he was happy that he had found her. He was losing sleep for her today, but it was worth it to be there for her. It was worth it to give her piece of mind, to talk with her and have the future promise of more conversation before him.

                She seemed like a good friend to him, maybe even more. His family would like her, he thought this to himself before shaking the mere idea off. If he introduced her to them, either as a friend or as a date they would all react in the same way. They trusted his judgements of others and she would be the first girl he had ever brought home if they ever got to that point. Of course his mother and father would be planning their wedding from the very moment they entered the door together.

                He chuckled at the thought to himself. No, he and Anna were just friends, and hardly that given how little they knew about each other. They were more like acquaintances who were becoming friends. After all you can’t marry someone you just met.

                He sighed as a nurse approached. Social interactions with people outside his family and outside his work were still somewhat foreign to him. He was no love expert like his mother Bulda, nor was he the conversationalist his father Cliff was.

                “Miss.” The young blonde called to Anna, who was still passed out against Kristoff’s shoulder.

                “She’s out like a light. Is there anything I can help you with?” Consciously he shifted slightly to bring Anna closer to him, he hoped making her more comfortable. She was dozing peacefully and hopefully dreaming of someplace brighter than the hospital in which they sat.

                The nurse smiled, eyes roaming over his half zipped hooded sweatshirt, it was stretched tight over the muscles of his arms and as such that was the main focus of her stare. She glanced at Anna for a moment, as if she were an afterthought. Her lips went from a smile, to a pout, back to a smile, albeit a bit forced. “Well Mr…”

                “Bjorgman.”

                “Mr. Bjorgman,” she repeated, her smiling lips moving slowly as she said it, “Elsa has been moved to her room. You may both see her now.”

 


	4. The Sister

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Kristoff meets Elsa.

              “That nurse was flirting with you!” Anna teased. Her voice was singsong and happy as she led the mountain man through the hallways of the residential care facility. Ever since she had awoken to his touch and with the news of her sister’s stability there had been an easy skip in her step. Her lips pressed together in a warm soft smile.

                Kristoff laughed; glad to see the change in her, happy to see her feeling good again after the panic she had been n that morning. He blushed lightly in response to her comment.

               “So what if she was?” He teased her in return despite personally doubting that the nurse had been attracted to him in the slightest. Women had never really flirted with him, at least to his knowledge, so why would the nurse have bothered doing so before or after he woke Anna? He did think that her treatment of him had been somewhat off, but he chalked it up to her curiosity as to why he was even there. He didn’t get flirted with. Why would anyone even bother?

               Anna’s laughing stopped and her smile went flat, replaced with a flat look. Her cheeks were beet read in embarrassment and she was quiet. “Sorry I was just teasing is all.”

               Kristoff didn’t know what he had said. He grabbed her arm gently, “I know.” His voice and smile were soft and calming to her, “So was I, I wasn’t interested even if she was.”

               The blush on her cheeks lessened but did not disappear, her smile returned lightly. She struggled with a question making its way up her throat, but ultimately kept it down. She wanted to ask him who did interest him, whether he had someone who had caught his attention, but she knew that it would be going too far.

               She took a deep breath. Kristoff was stopped beside her in front of yet another elderly patient’s door. Anna hated leaving Elsa in the hospital’s residential care facility, a place where she was the only person besides the nurses and doctors who was under the age of fifty. She knew her sister understood why, but even with her daily visits Anna couldn’t help but feel as if she was somehow failing or betraying her sister. It felt to Anna as if they had just gotten back to being themselves again, and it felt like a knife to the heart to have a distance between them, even if it was small.

               “Elsa’s room is this way.” Anna said as she continued to walk. She hoped that getting to her sister’s room would diffuse some of the awkward tension between them over her unspoken words. She hadn’t asked Kristoff to leave when he had roused her, nor did he seem like he wished to go. She was glad to have him at her side no matter how awkward she had made things. For as little as she knew him, his presence brought her an odd sense of comfort. If all went well she would be sure to not let another week pass before seeing him again.

               Kristoff followed wordlessly. He wondered why she had reacted in the way she had to his return of her jest over the nurse. He wished that he had more to compare to than just his interactions with his sisters and mother when it came to being around women outside of his work. He wondered if he were putting her off with the clunky way he walked or with the grumpy way he talked. It somehow hurt him to think about. He didn’t want to put her off and he wasn’t sure if he wanted to pull her in either.

               When they came upon the correct door Kristoff nearly sighed in relief. He would much rather meet Anna’s sister than be left alone with his own thoughts. The door was white, just like all the rest. Things were pretty standard within the confines of the hospital and from what he had seen of it so far it was far too institutional for his tastes. He liked rough imperfect things, imperfect wood, chairs that wobbled, warm colors and anything but white sterile walls. He supposed it stemmed from his love of the open, the way it felt to be in nature and breathe air that hadn’t been filtered and recycled through a building several hundred times over. He felt bad for every last living soul in the place and wondered to himself whether a little fresh air wouldn’t be beneficial to most.

               Outside of the door a standard looking clipboard caught his attention. It was hanging from a small hook to the right of the door’s knob, on it was a stack of papers which read in bold: Elsa Arendelle, 21, Diagnosis: Unknown. He looked away from it quickly feeling as though he shouldn’t have read it, and that perhaps it had been left there on accident. His attention was quickly caught by Anna, specifically her fist rapping against the door.

               “Elsa?” She called in a sing song voice, “Do you want to build a snowman?”

               There was a light coughing laugh from within, something which Anna took as a cue to enter. Inside there was a muffled return of an obvious inside joke between the pair, “Or ride our bike around the halls?”

               After this Anna’s head peeked back out the door and the girl, smiling softly, motioned for the much larger man to enter.

               He did as he was beckoned and found himself in a comfortable looking space. Despite the hospital white walls the room felt somewhat like a home. He wasn’t sure what he had been expecting, but paintings on the walls and warm light was certainly not it. The room was brightly lit, the window providing some, a blue tiffany style lamp and the ceiling lights providing the rest. On the walls there were framed canvas paintings of fall and winter scenes, they were unsigned, but they reminded Kristoff of the Thomas Kinkade prints on the Christmas cards that his mother, Bulda, used to send to their large immediate and  extended family.

               The window was framed with light blue curtains that matched the color of the sheets on the bed. Beside the window was a dresser on one side and a darkly stained cedar chest on the other. Atop the dresser was a plentiful assortment of free standing frames of all different shapes and sizes, in each was a photograph of either Anna, Elsa, a couple that Kristoff could only suppose were their parents, or a combination of the subjects. On the wall opposite the bed and adjacent to the room’s entry door there was a door that led to an adjoining bathroom. On the opposite side of the room there was a bed topped with a white quilt in which a pale but very beautiful woman sat.

               “Who’s this?” The woman said apprehensively, speaking to her sister but staring at Kristoff with an icy glare that threatened to slice him in two at any moment. For an ill woman with an unknown and possibly fatal diagnosis she was terrifying. Kristoff could imagine her crushing him beneath the heel of her boot if she so chose despite their obvious health and size differences. Perhaps he had thought wrong about wanting to meet her rather than being left alone to his thoughts.

               Anna immediately touched her sister’s arm to comfort her. “Kristoff.” She said hurriedly, “His name is Kristoff.”

               Her expression softened slightly. “The one with the big dog you found?”

               Anna nodded, “Yeah, Sven. Anyway he’s our new neighbor. My car wouldn’t start this morning when I got the call that you were sick so he drove me here.”

               Elsa looked at her sister and gently frowned, her brow furrowed, “Anna we need to get you a new car.” She looked both sad and embarrassed, the kind of expression you would see on a parent who wasn’t there for their child when they got hurt. She was disappointed in herself for not being able to get Anna what she needed and also for adding stress onto her. She looked softened by this, haggard in a way from the realization, far from the sharp being she had been when Kristoff had entered the room.

               Anna took her sister’s hand and patted it reassuringly. “I’m fine Elsa.” She laughed a bit, smiling, trying to chase the smile off her older sister’s face. “I was just worried about you, I’m sure I can get the car fixed sometime before school starts so it’s no big deal.”

               The blonde sighed, changing the subject with a weak smirk at her sister. “Anna, would you mind getting me something to eat? I couldn’t get up for breakfast and I think the nurses forgot that I didn’t eat yet.”

               The younger of the two sisters nodded quickly and took her leave, off in search of some sustenance for her older sister. Taking off she practically forgot that Kristoff was even there. Her concerns lay in her sister’s health more than in his comfort at that moment.

               This was, of course, what Elsa had been banking on. Her icy glare once again pinned itself to Kristoff’s face as she pointed imperiously to a chair that sat just a foot away from her bedside. He was sure that if it had set any closer it would have been covered in a thin layer of frost from her expression alone.

               “Please sit.” She said, though Kristoff knew that the please was redundant and a false tactfulness made for appearances rather than actual nicety. Every syllable as it passed her lips spoke that it was not a question or a suggestion, it was a command.

               He obeyed without question quietly considering, for not the first time that day, how he had ended up where he sat. He honestly was unsure of what he had done to find himself all alone and on the wrong side of a very angry older sister.

               “What are your intentions with my sister?” She demanded, eyes on fire staring into his very soul. She was sitting up straight on the bed the light and warmth of the room, which he now assumed was Anna’s doing, did little to soften her harshness.

               Kristoff’s mouth was open and empty. He didn’t know what to say, what she was expecting him to say, or what he should say. All he knew was what he wanted to say, what he truly felt in the matter. “ My intention is to get to know her before I make any intentions.”

               He hoped that it had not come across as forward or headstrong as he heard it. Rather he wished that she would take it in the honest spirit in which he gave it. He wasn’t going to express his undying love or friendship for Anna because he had just met her the week before. He didn’t know her enough to love her and they had barely known one another long enough to call each other acquaintances let alone friends. However they were getting there, he already considered her a friend in his heart because they had simply hit it off from their original meeting. She was fun, happy, spontaneous, feisty, and generally had all the traits he liked in a person. He would wait a little while longer before calling her friend though, even as badly as he wanted to. He wanted to be her friend, and maybe he wanted to be more than that, but only time would tell.

               The arctic façade on the blonde’s face melted instantly with his words. She even laughed a bit after he spoke, leaving him again dumbstruck. He had answered well and though in the young woman’s eyes there was still an air of skepticism Kristoff had risen to the occasion and had given her a truthful answer. He hadn’t tried to give her some sort of smooth response or honeyed words, he was an open book, and she liked that. Elsa so far rather liked Kristoff Bjorgman and could at the very least respect him for what he had done for her and her sister.

               One thing was absolutely certain and that was that she liked him far more than the first and last man her sister had brought home. However she supposed that such a sentiment meant little considering the fact that Anna could bring Satan himself to meet her and she would approve of him a great deal better than she would her sister’s ex-boyfriend. She never trusted men to begin with, but post Hans she was even more skeptical of their intentions.

               “Well then,” She said flicking a lock of pale hair back behind her ear, it having fallen out of her long single braid. “It’s nice to meet you Kristoff.”

               She smiled lightly then, just the corners of her lips turning upwards and only for a fraction of a moment, almost imperceptible, before falling straight again. “I’m sorry, my sister probably got you up pretty early this morning.”

               He shrugged, “She needed help, it wasn’t a big deal, I’d do it for anyone.” It was true, he was a good man and he would help anyone. It was the way Cliff and Bulda raised him, and as such he didn’t mention his lack of sleep, the fact that today was one of his only days off, or how he had done the kindness out of both the goodness of his heart and the growing warmth he had within it every time he pictured Anna’s smile.

               “Well if it brings you any comfort this is a very rare occasion. Anna’s not really what I’d call an early riser.” She made a coughing laugh, “I may be dying, but I try not to do it too early in the morning.”

               Kristoff would have been taken aback were in not for the wild admiration and care he suddenly felt for the blonde. According to her charts she was just months older or younger than he was, and she was so utterly nonchalantly cracking jokes about her illness. She would try not to die too early in the morning so as not to bother him or ruin his sleep. She sounded brave, but he knew that it was just an act. She was like him, she would rather seem strong and deflect the pain she felt than face it and ask for help. She was concealing her feelings and for Kristoff this was plain as day. He wasn’t as good as his mother when it came to reading people, but he knew what pain looked like. He may be oblivious to flirting, but he could see stronger emotions than like. He knew she was just trying to prepare for the day she was gone, she didn’t want to hurt anyone when she died.

               “Well I’m usually at work in the afternoons and I like my nights to myself so if your sister is going to need a ride, morning would be best.” He paused, watching her face change from a mask of indifference to shock. Apparently she had never had anyone return her attitude before. “But personally I think it would really be best if you didn’t die at all.”

               She turned to him just as Anna reentered the room carrying a tray of food. There was an odd look on Elsa’s face, something between shock and a smile; however it turned fully to a smile when she caught sight of her younger sister. Elsa looked from her sister to the man and realized that she would like Mr. Bjorgman much more than she had previously anticipated.

                                         

***

               Kristoff left the hospital after an hour or so of meeting Elsa. He liked her, at least as much as he knew of her, and was in absolute agreement with Anna’s estimate that they were polar opposites. For what it was worth he liked them both, even with the way that they both seemed to be treading lightly with him, keeping him at an arm’s length even when pulling him in. It was obvious neither of them wanted to let him get too close too quickly, especially Elsa, but he didn’t know why. He wasn’t one to pry of course, but he could tell it had to do with some past of theirs. His only hope was that he would eventually earn their trust enough to learn why they had been so wary of him.

               He yawned as he parked his truck back in his driveway. After exiting the truck he saw a very excited looking pile of fur staring at him out the front living room window. He was on the couch, and as much as Kristoff hated vacuuming, and cleaning in general, he couldn’t deny the furry beast the right to lie on the furniture.

               Sven’s tail swung in a wide and fast arc of glee back and forth, his ears were perked up, listening for Kristoff’s entrance while watching him fumble with his keys from out the window. The dog’s jaw was set in an open mouthed smile, and he was generally just as happy to see his master as Kristoff was to see him. The pair hated being apart for long as they had always been close, even working together.

               Sven was a smart dog, he knew where to sit and what to do in the woods when his master was sawing. Kristoff had trained him for logging, however much of his ability Sven had taught himself. He always seemed to know which way a tree was going to fall and when it would before the human workers even did. He always barked to inform those on the job site of the danger, and even drug away brush from time to time to keep the area and paths clear. When an area was cut Sven would dig holes for Kristoff to plant the new saplings. He was a good working dog and an even better friend.

               When the lock turned and Kristoff entered his home, he was rushed by the large furry beast, and knew it was better to take the blow than to tense up as Sven bumped into him with the full force of his love. _“Well hey there Kristoff! I’m so glad you’re home!”_ Kristoff said to himself in his best “Sven Voice”.

               “Hey Buddy!” He responded, scratching the dog behind the ears and receiving an approving rub of the dog’s body against his leg in response. “I’m going back to the hospital to pick Anna up in a few hours, but until then I’m going to get some sleep.”

 _“Shouldn’t you take a shower first? You kind of smell.”_ The dog responded, not only through Kristoff’s words, but also through his expression.

               “Hey! Just because you got all washed up at the shelter doesn’t mean you’re an expert on cleanliness either buddy.” In his mind he knew the dog was right however. He was still wearing the clothes he had put on that morning, jeans and a sweatshirt, things that had only made him sweat in his hot truck.

               The dog said nothing but rather gave the man a disproving look that caused him to concede to the truth and wander off to the shower.  Deciding the living room far too hot for his furry body the dog retreated to the much cooler bedroom where he could bask in the air conditioning against his heavy fur. He was much better suited for the cold than the heat and honestly could not wait for the seasons to change.

***

               Anna sighed as she brushed out her sister’s unbraided hair. Of course Elsa could do it herself, but it was something Anna loved to do as a child and now it provided her time to think. Her hands went about the mindless work with ease. She lifted large groups of blonde strands together in her hands and ran the brush over them before releasing and moving on to the next section.

               “I think I like him.” Elsa said carefully, it was the first thing she had said on the topic of Kristoff since meeting him. Of course she had had plenty to say when her sister had first mentioned him. She had spoken warnings to her younger sibling about rushing in, men, and to make sure that she would not repeat old mistakes. It was simply what she did, Elsa feared and warned and pleaded with Anna. It was their dynamic. However thus far Elsa was pleased by what she saw in her sister’s new friend.

               Of course friend had been Anna’s word and not hers. She knew her sister better than anyone, and she had seen the look in her eye when Kristoff was there. Yes, Elsa knew that there was much more going on in her sister’s mind in respects to Kristoff, and that terrified her. The last time she had seen Anna give a man that look it had been Hans. And Hans had broken Anna’s heart and had acted despicably in more ways than just that towards their family. She couldn’t bear to watch her younger sister go down that path again.

               “I thought that you might.” Anna said, glad she was behind her sister so that Elsa would only sense the grin and blush alighting her face rather than see it in its entirety. “He’s really a good friend.”

               “A friend?” Elsa asked, a single brow rising in question, “I don’t know if that’s the word I’d use.”

               Anna brought the brush down unnecessarily rough to her sister’s hair in response to her teasing. “Yes Elsa, a friend, I know I just met him, and I’m not that stupid.”

               Despite the strong tug of the brush in her hair Elsa turned her neck to look behind and up at her sister. “I never said you were stupid Anna. I’m just worried, you know me.”

               Anna sighed and relented, seeing the honest look in her sister’s eyes. She had just so recently gotten her back and she couldn’t even dream of hurting her. “And I’m worried about you.” She said sweetly, “So please Elsa worry about you and not me. I’ll be okay, I learned my lesson the first time, and Kristoff’s different.” She paused for a moment before adding, “I know you see that.”

               Elsa sighed, her shoulders rolling as she did so and her chest rising and falling almost normally despite her earlier attack. She thought over her sister’s words as Anna continued brushing through her hair. Elsa straightened the bodice of the white nightgown she wore as Anna brushed slowly and rhythmically. She had yet to change out of her nightwear and would do so after Anna was finished with her tresses. She could never say no to Anna when she wanted to brush out her hair. It had given the redhead so much joy as a child and Elsa knew that she had missed it in the years during which she had locked herself away. “I do see it. He seems great, but at least promise me that you’ll be careful. Please Anna, you’re everything to me and I wouldn’t know what to do with myself if anything happened to you.”

               Anna leaned down and kissed her sister on the cheek, “Well don’t even think about it, because you’ll never have to. I’m always right here Elsa, I’ve always been, I always will be, and I promise Kristoff and I are just friends. I’ll be careful, I’ll take things slow.”

               “Do you love him?”

               It was a sudden question, quiet and without any warning from Elsa’s lips. Anna was shocked at it, but knew the answer. “I don’t know, we just met… I don’t even know what it’s like to love someone like that, but I know what it isn’t. It’s not like Hans Elsa, I don’t expect anything with Kristoff. I like him, I don’t love him, but I think maybe someday I could.” She exhaled, fingers moving to braid the silken blonde strands up as they usually were. “Does that make sense?”

                 Elsa smiled gently to her sister. Her look was even, level, reassuring. “It does.” She wasn’t sure of anything anymore. She didn’t know what was wrong with her, she didn’t know what would happen in the future, but of one thing she was sure. Anna had changed, and while she was proud, she knew she had scabs on her heart that hadn’t even had time to fully heal. She wasn’t going to pick at them, and as long as Kristoff wasn’t going to put any fresh wounds there she supposed she would give him a chance.


	5. Second First Date

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Kristoff takes Anna out to the county fair.

                Anna braided and unbraided her hair in her bedroom, she put it up, she took it down, and she wanted to pull it out. No matter what she did with it, it looked wrong, it felt wrong. She fell back onto her bed and stared up at the ceiling wishing that Elsa was there to help her, if only with her hair.

                The ceiling’s blankness did little to inspire her, unlike a blank canvas it presented no opportunity for ideas or creation, and most of all no suggestion as to what she should be doing with her hair. She gave up on originality and pulled her laptop out from beneath her bed before sitting back up upon it, back braced against the headboard, and laptop precariously balanced on her crisscrossed legs. Her fingers ran over the keys with deftness, though the way she typed, then deleted, and typed again it would have been obvious to any onlooker that she was having trouble with the conflict of her own mind.

                “First Date Hair for Summer” read the search bar as her finger hovered over the enter key. She was forced to ask herself, however, whether or not it truly was a first date. They had gone out for dinner together on the first day they had met, they had made small talk, he had driven her home by accident, but had it been a date? She wasn’t sure.

                Carefully she replaced the cursor in the search box and deleted the word “first” replacing it with “second”, her index finger again hovering over the enter key.

                She supposed that it wasn’t a true second date either given that she had more or less forced him into the first out of his gratitude. She closed the device in frustration before leaving the bed to walk to the opposite side of the room and seated herself at an old family heirloom that graced her room, an antique vanity.

                She paid no attention to how many generations of southern women from her Mother’s side had sat at that very table in the past, simply plopping into the chair with a protesting creak from its ancient wooden legs. Picking up a brush she set again to brushing out her hair. It felt like she had done it a million times in the last hour, but she didn’t tire of it. Once she was sure that her hair was free of tangles, knots, and snarls, she divided the long red tresses into two equal portions, throwing them over the front of her shoulders with the majority of the strands tucked behind her ears. She left her bangs swept across her forehead because she honestly didn’t know what else to do with them before returning to work with the sections she separated. She braided them as she always did, leaving them to hang on her shoulders so that they swung freely as she moved. She tied the ends off with hair elastics in an attempt to keep it from falling out of its style. Looking up into the mirror she exhaled exasperatedly. She looked the same as always with her hair in braids and light makeup on her face.

                She was forced to admit to herself despite her plainness that she liked the way she looked. After all he had invited her to the county fair, not a fancy restaurant. She smiled at the thought of Kristoff even stepping foot into a fancy restaurant and giggled at the image in put in her mind.

She had been so surprised and excited when he had asked her out in the first place. It had been after he picked her up from the hospital. His pickup had been idling in her driveway with them sitting in it expectantly. He had seemed nervous about asking her, but she found it endearing and she was glad that he had asked. Of course after giving her affirmative and watching him return to his home across the street she was forced to ask herself the question as to whether or not Elsa had had anything to do with it. She had called her just after it had happened to see, but only received a denial and another warning to be careful, however she had said it all in a loving voice. Anna had never seen anyone win over Elsa so quickly.

That had been Saturday, today was Friday, not quite a week, and for that she supposed they were making progress. She had actually seen him a few times already in the week, usually in passing, a wave when he was leaving, a quick hello when they caught one another outside, and on Wednesday he had actually driven her to the community college campus early in the morning on his way to work so that she could make her schedule. Her poor car was still in disrepair and she wouldn’t admit to a living soul that she was too afraid to bring it to the garage to hear that it was entirely dead. She didn’t have an excess of money, but between her scholarships, the savings she and Elsa had and the money left to them by their parents the Arendelle sisters were comfortable. It didn’t mean that Anna could afford a car though, not by any means, especially if she wanted to continue her charity work at the shelter rather than pick up a part time job. The past year had been quite a growing up experience for her.

Checking herself in the mirror she straightened her blouse and tucked a few stray hairs behind her ear again. She looked pale under the bedroom light, she could sit out in the sun for hours and would never tan, she could certainly burn herself to a crisp, but tanning was an unattainable dream for her. At the very least she wasn’t quite as pale as her sister. Yet she silently damned her ginger skin for being so sensitive, remembering how she found out the hard way at the age of sixteen that she was allergic to self-tanner. For at least a month after that she had been happy to not leave the house.

It was five thirty, Kristoff was coming at six, and for once in her life she was ready ahead of time. Pulling on a pair of high top sneakers she walked into the kitchen to grab her purse. It had already been checked through multiple times, but she searched through it once again to ensure that everything she needed was within. Inside she found her wallet, a pack of gum and the cellphone she so rarely used, just as she had left them. She wondered for a moment whether or not she had even given Kristoff her number, not that it mattered much, he knew where to find her.

She squeezed the power button on the phone’s side and the screen lit up in response. Five minutes to six and no texts from Elsa or calls from her or the hospital. She sighed in relief, but at the same time she felt wary. She had told Elsa that she wouldn’t be visiting, or rather Elsa said that she wouldn’t be letting her in for the day, but Anna had at least expected her sister to shoot her a text or give her a call. Knowing Elsa the lack of communication meant that she just wanted her sister to just have a fun time without worry, however this gave Anna little comfort when no news wasn’t necessarily good news in terms of Elsa’s condition. She would always be worried about her sister whether she called or not, and though she would only admit it to herself the reason she had to be in such constant contact with her sister was for fear of being shut out again. Elsa was all she had left, and whether to sickness or isolation she couldn’t lose her too.

Exhaling exasperatedly she stuffed the device back into the small bag and rested it so that the strap was on her shoulder and the bag itself was on her opposite hip. She didn’t know why she was so nervous, this wasn’t her first rodeo. This wasn’t even her first time going out with Kristoff, but still her stomach tumbled and rolled like a gymnast performing an Olympic floor routine. She couldn’t deny the butterflies filling her stomach, they made her feel like floating and vomiting in equal amounts. She tried to rid the sensation by taking a deep breath, but found that I caught in her throat when she tried. She walked to the sink to fetch a glass of water just as there was a knock on the front door.

Her heart began to flutter in the same way as her stomach. She had to force herself not to run to the door and to not run from the door. Her mind was all in tumults, her fingers shaking as they met the metal knob of her front door. She had never felt quite so strangely before, Kristoff was unlike any other man she had ever met, and though tonight was only a date she wanted it to go perfectly. They were still getting to know each other and she wanted him to like her, she really did.

Breathing in a deep breath, letting it fill her lungs and calm her body she pulled open the door. She put a smile on her face to hide her worries, but had little to fear when the door revealed a very friendly furry face.

“Sven!” She called excitedly as the dog popped up from his position at his master’s feet to be at the red head’s side. He licked at her hands and stretched out before her to be pet. Kristoff, watching this, laughed and smiled washing away both of their worries.

“I tried to say no, but he really wanted to see you.”

Anna had lost all heed as to what she looked like the moment the furry dog was before her. She fell to her knees to hug and pet the beast knowing that she was undoubtedly covered in his hair the moment she touched him, but she couldn’t find it in herself to care.

“Is he coming with us?” She asked, holding Sven to her happily.

“No, not tonight.” He frowned then his brow furrowed looking at the dog. Truth be told he had wanted to bring him for both of their comfort, but knew that if he did bring Sven that the dog would be the focus of their whole evening. Though that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, he wanted all his attention to be on Anna tonight, he wanted to talk to her freely, to have all the time in the world to get to know her better. “I think he’d much rather stay home in the air-conditioning. Isn’t that right buddy?"

The dog perked up and looked at Kristoff, mouth hanging open with his tongue lolled to one side. “ _Yep, I’d rather be inside and out of the hot air, even though it’s going to be cool tonight_.” Kristoff spoke for the dog in a goofy voice as he normally did, however this garnered a spectacularly snort-filled laugh from Anna, something which he hadn’t expected or accounted for.

“Oh my Gosh!” She laughed, “You talk for your dog?” Her sides hurt from laughing. She was the type of girl who had no in-between, either her laughs were small nervous little giggles, or they were loud, boisterous and painful. There was nothing else for Anna, just one way or another.

Kristoff hadn’t been thinking about what he had been doing by making his “Sven voice” in front of Anna. He was just so used to being alone or around family that didn’t care. He even did the voice at work, the guys more or less playing along, so he didn’t think to not do it around Anna. He blushed red and hot from the crown of his head to the soles of his feet, even his ears were bright red in embarrassment. “Yeah, sorry it’s a bad habit I picked up as a kid. I know it’s weird, I just wasn…”

Anna cut him off, still laughing and clutching at her sides. “Thank God!” She exclaimed, “I thought I was the only one!”

She snorted as she laughed, her entire chest heaving with the vigor of it, her face and chest red as well from the sheer force of her laughter. “I talk to everything. Dogs, cats, pictures, my computer, the alarm clock, food, literally everything. I didn’t really have anyone to talk to as a kid so I talked to everything. I think I might have scared my parents when I did it, really, I’m still surprised they didn’t try to get me to see a shrink or something, though they probably didn’t because they were afraid that I’d get shipped off to the mad house or something. You know? Not that talking to your dog and then talking to yourself like your dog is talking back means that you should be institutionalized or anything. Like I said it’s something that I do too, it’s…”

“Anna!” Kristoff said, it was his turn now to cut her off. “It’s okay, I get it!”

Though his voice was gentle, she felt embarrassed, her blush deepening just as his had faded back into nothingness. “Sorry, nervous habit.”

“You’re nervous?” He raised a brow curiously looking over the young woman before him. She was beautiful, smart and charismatic. In his eyes there was no possible way that she could be nervous over something so small as going out with him for the night.

She sighed and nodded, much to his amazement. He thought that he was the nervous one, the one who had looked himself over in the mirror three times before coming over, the one who had taken two showers in five hours when he usually only took two in a week. This was the first time he had ever asked a girl out, the first time a woman had ever accepted his offer, and also the first time he ever actually had to follow through. He had been practically trembling while he had gotten dressed, his nervousness in stark contrast to the natural relaxed gruffness of his attitude.

However now that he was with Anna and now that she had admitted to feeling nervous too, the last of his fears for the night melted away. “Well then welcome to the club I guess.”

She looked up at him, her lips curling into a smile as azure met chocolate and saw the truth inside their warm darkness. She could have laughed at the thought that they had both been worried about this night, but kept her amused relief in her smile. “That’s certainly a relief.”

It had been a while since she had been on a first date, or rather dates at all, save for her previous maybe-date with Kristoff. There had been a reason for that, but seeing the truth in him, his openness, she let her guard fall down. She knew Elsa would hate that she was making herself vulnerable again, but Anna knew that she was smarter now that she had been before. Letting her walls down didn’t mean Kristoff could hurt her like her ex had, it didn’t mean she’d give him an opportunity to, it just meant that she was giving him a chance and that if he took it, she would be ready to plan from there for good or bad.

She stood up again so that she was no longer at Sven’s level and let her eyes run over Kristoff. He was rather handsome in his flannel button down and blue jeans. His hair was combed out, it looked soft to the touch but golden like newly dried hay. She thought for a moment about combing her fingers through it, but stopped the thought before she could act upon it. They weren’t there yet, she may be ready to be open to him but it didn’t mean that he was open to her. What they had was friendship, hand holding once, a shoulder to lean on when needed, but nothing more physically. She wanted more, but she would work at with him.

“Well I’m going to run Sven back over to the house, are you ready to go?” He couldn’t help but grin like an idiot as he looked upon her. She was beautiful as ever, her read hair up in braids, her eyes shining. Even he could feel something in the air between them tonight.

Anna nodded, her mouth fixed into a warm smile. She followed him out the door and to his truck, acutely aware of the height difference between them. She liked how much taller than her he was, it was a large enough difference that she felt small beside him, but not one large enough that she was afraid. She liked the idea of being shorter than him as it was a change from the guys she usually looked at. As a general rule she went after the business type of man, mid height, lean, all suits and logic, but after her last experience Kristoff’s tall, broad, denim and flannel was a welcome difference.

He held the door for her as she climbed into his truck, hopping onto a ledge on its side first in order to leverage herself up and into the passenger’s seat. She buckled herself in once she was comfortable in the cab, Kristoff closing the door behind her before setting off with Sven down the driveway and across the street.

She rolled down the window using the truck’s manual crank and gave Kristoff a thumbs up. She was possessed to do it from watching him do so when he dropped her off at the college office on Wednesday. He was a thumbs up kind of guy, a nonverbal cue, happy kind of man, and she liked that.

She knew that she talked too much most of the time when a few words was enough, doing such a simple gesture to say “hey I’m good” felt refreshingly normal to her, and when he returned the gesture with a smile she actually felt like she really was good. Gone from her mind were the worries about Elsa, the hospital, school, and her ex-boyfriend. All there was in her mind was herself, Kristoff, and the thoughts of a good night as the sky faded from sundown to dusk.

When Kristoff returned from letting Sven back inside Anna was relaxed into the seat beside him. Turning the key and shifting the truck into reverse Kristoff couldn’t help but do the same. He had a feeling that tonight was going to be different than anything he had ever experienced before, however so long as Anna was at his side, as new and strange as she was to him, he knew that things were going to be alright.

***

The air was thick with the sickly sweet smell of candy floss and caramel corn and there were children clinging to their mother’s waists as they left the brightly lit midway and made their way through the gates of the fair ground. Their eyelids were drooping with exhaustion, but their mouths were still smiling, their minds full of the wonder and magic that the fair brought to those who were too young to see beyond the color and tinsel. They didn’t see the trash that would be cleaned up after, they didn’t see the work that went into the yearly event, they didn’t care that it was a tradition hundreds of years old. They only saw sweets, toys, games, thrills and magic.

Kristoff smiled looking at Anna, seeing in her eyes the same fascination of a child. She had never gone to the county fair before. She had told Kristoff as much in the truck as they were pulling in to the muddy high school soccer field two towns over from Arendelle which served as the parking lot for the event.

They were less than a half hour away from his boyhood home while they were at the fair and if he hadn’t called ahead to see if his family was coming he would have been sure to see a sibling or two there. His little brothers and sisters loved the fair and went every day of the weeklong event so long as Mama and Papa let them. He knew they would miss showing Sven in the dog show that year, but was sure that they would find some other form of entertainment for themselves.

Kristoff was the eldest of seven and the only one who was adopted. He hadn’t told Anna much about his family yet, not even the size. He supposed that meeting them all at once unannounced would come as something of a shock to her, however they weren’t coming to the fair tonight. They had gone for the day to watch the horse show, but they wouldn’t be returning until morning, a fact which caused him to sigh in relief. He loved his family, and he was sure that Anna would too, but they were just friends, and he knew his family would see more there. He knew they would see what they could be together and he wasn’t sure if either of them was ready for that yet.

Anna’s mouth hung open in awe as Kristoff lead her through the gates, a small red ticket reading “admit one” clutched in her sweaty palm tightly, Kristoff’s hand in the other. “Wow.” She said, sucking in breath and letting it out in one short eager burst. “It’s so big.”

Kristoff couldn’t help but beam from the pure joy he saw on her face. He could scarcely believe that she had never seen a fair before. They had been such a staple in his childhood that it took him a few minutes to reimagine what it was like seeing one for the first time.

As a child it had been like a dream, candy, games, rides and toys to buy or win. When he had grown a bit it was an opportunity to do something with his summer. He used to show animals from the family’s stock in the shows, and he had been paid fairly well in his teen years for doing set up, tear down, by doing heavy lifting, and on the occasions when needed he would help with games in the midway. Now that he was grown it was a place for him to remember those days and watch others in his place doing the same things he had done.

By his nature Kristoff had never been an overly communicative creature, but the county fair had changed that in him for a week once a year. As a child he would talk to other children, giggle with them and play in the fun house for hours. As a teen he would do his job, talking with the other staffers of the event, and on the occasions where he was hired out to run games he would flirt with girls and antagonize other young men into playing the games for which he received a commission.

He sighed thinking on those days, wishing he remembered how to flirt in a time like now when he really needed it. Then again he didn’t want to flirt with Anna, he wanted to get to know her. Flirting was what he did at seventeen to nineteen, during one week each summer to make money for his future. Learning was what he wanted to do with Anna.

He chuckled, “Yeah I used to think so too when I was a kid.” His hand was held tightly in hers, their fingers not laced leaving his thumb free to make a gentle pass over her wrist.

She felt this despite her attention being overwhelmingly placed upon her surroundings. It was a gentle touch, nothing that wouldn’t pass between friends, but it made her feel warm all over.

“So, what do you want to do first?”

Anna looked at Kristoff, her eyes showing confusion. What did she want to do first? There was just so much before her. In her direct line of sight there was a row of food vendors, some local, some obviously with the midway, and others from places farther away according to their signs. Off to the left side of the food stands, according to her map, there were the poultry, cattle, and horse barns. To the right was the midway where the games and rides were, and behind the food stands was the grandstand which stole her attention as within it there was something creating quite a loud noise. She glanced down at her map then looked up a Kristoff. “What on Earth is a tractor pull?”

Her brow was wrinkled in confusion, her lips turning slightly to a frown as she looked at Kristoff for a response to her questioning. It wasn’t a term she had ever come across before, of course she wasn’t stupid, she knew what a tractor was and what the action of pulling meant, but seeing them together was a concept foreign enough to make her stop and question it.

Kristoff could have fallen over laughing, “It’s something farmers do… kind of like a yearly pissing contest that gets out of hand.”

There was a sudden loud popping sound beyond the fence that made Anna duck down and grab onto Kristoff’s arm as other fair goers, unfazed, continued to mill about. “What was that?”

Trying not to laugh, having seen her facial expression go from glee to confusion to fear in the matter of a minute he took a deep breath. “Someone blew an engine.” He did laugh then, “You should hear it when they do the modified class. Some people put aircraft engines in those things.”

Anna’s mouth fell open, it seemed confusion would be the theme of the night. She was still clinging to his arm and wasn’t sure whether or not she should let go. She knew it was strange to be hanging on him so tightly, but at the same time he was smiling. Being so close to him was warm and comforting so she met her thoughts halfway, releasing most of the pressure she had applied to his limb, but not all of it she continued to hold his arm. Tucking the ticket into her purse and they began to walk forward towards the food vendors.

“How about we get something to eat? Did you have dinner yet?”

Smiling coyly she remembered that she hadn’t. She had assumed that she was all ready to go, but what she hadn’t been thinking of for once was food. “Not yet.” She was just glad that one of them had remembered before her stomach had noticed. She may look like a lady, but the noises her stomach made when she was hungry were anything but feminine and soft.

He was the first to suggest burgers, and Anna could hardly say no, even if she knew that in his mind nothing would ever come close to his Grand Pabbie’s creation. Smiling she followed him over to a food stand, her mind was filled to the brim and swirling with the sounds and smells of her first ever fair. She only wished that Elsa was with her. Kristoff was being an excellent gentleman and friend, but Anna wished that she could share the experience with her sister. Elsa had never liked crowds, but Anna was fairly certain that she would have liked to see the carnival of sights and sounds anyway; she certainly would have enjoyed getting out of the sterility of the hospital.

Anna tried to shrug off the thought, knowing that Elsa wouldn’t want her to make the night about her. She wasn’t sure if she could help it, but a flash of something familiar caught her eye across the grounds. Out of the corner of her eye was a moving red head and a black designer jacket heading in the direction opposite her, completely out of place in the crowd. Anna sighed and looked again at Kristoff, ignoring the feeling of something off in her gut, the shiver that ran down her spine. Tonight wasn’t about her sister, and it certainly wasn’t about the ghosts of her past. Tonight was about the future, having fun and being with a friend. Her grip tightened on Kristoff’s arm. Tonight was going to be amazing if it killed her.

***

As the pair walked around the fairgrounds Anna sipped homemade lemonade through a twisty straw. They had eaten and had seen the cattle. Anna had stopped to observe the poultry excitedly, waking a few birds in her sheer excitement of their different colors, shapes and sizes. They had perused the 4-H exhibits and the already judged garden and cooking contest entries. Half of the winners had been his mother’s recipes and produce, but he didn’t tell Anna so.

Instead he had continually asked her if she was bored and had been surprised by the answer that she wasn’t in the least. He had admired the way she looked on everything like it was extraordinary. He had grown up in the mountains, and being raised in a rural area on a family farm meant that nothing agriculturally significant brought him much pleasure. Vegetables were for eating, there was nothing innately lovely about them for him, except perhaps for carrots. Carrots were his and Sven’s favorite. They had gotten in trouble more than once in Kristoff’s younger days for digging up carrots from his mother’s garden and eating them. When he told Anna as much he had to admit that he wasn’t quite as young as he would have liked to say he was when such events had unfolded. She laughed.

You wouldn’t have thought that she was staring at a braid of garlic by the excitement she had produced over it. She had been amazed by it all, and in her eyes there was a look of intrigue and joy. Kristoff didn’t notice, of course, but it was the same look in her eye each time she saw him.

They had made their way to the midway. Bright lights and flashing colors filled Anna’s eyes, and again she was consumed by childlike glee. She didn’t pay attention to the rough around the edges carnies smoking in their joints and booths, nor did she hear them calling out to her and Kristoff to play their games. She only saw the beauty of the artwork on the signs and the glow of fluorescence and neon.

“Whoa.” She muttered simply as she squeezed Kristoff’s hand tightly in hers. Their fingers were laced and she was close to his side. Since they had arrived at the fairgrounds she had been gravitating closer and closer to him. She hadn’t noticed the magnetic pull between them, but Kristoff had.

Every accidently touch, every time she bumped into him or pulled in close to his side he felt warmth the likes of which he could not name. It was as if she were the sun. The closer he was to her, the warmer he felt.

It was an inside warmth, a fluttering feeling in his chest and stomach that wasn’t unlike butterflies, but a much more pleasant experience overall. It was the type of feeling that made him want to tangle his fingers into her hair, the type of feeling that made him want to get closer to her and then never let her go. In the back of his mind he knew what it was, coming from a family of people who considered themselves love experts he could tell that the feeling was the start of something beyond friendship.

They were holding hands, but he wanted more. He wasn’t sure if it was right to want it, but he wanted to hold more than her hand, he wanted to hold her, he wanted to kiss her, he wanted a whole list of things with her that just seemed to grow more and more as he got to know her. However he was inexperienced, out of practice, and generally unsure of how to bring about the change he so desired.

Tugging Anna gently over to one of the midway stalls Kristoff smiled to Anna, unlacing his fingers from her to pull a dollar bill out from his pocket. Though he hated the feel of his hand parting hers he spoke happily, “Watch this!”

He sounded like a child showing off a magic trick for all the joy that was in his voice as he set his money down on the grimy metal counter before him. He didn’t see it through the same rose colored glasses as Anna did, but he knew for certain that he could make her even more pleased than she already was. His sisters, though quite a bit younger than him, had always forced him into watching their teeny-bopper romance films, and if there was anything he had learned from them, it was that women loved stuffed animals.

“One please.” He said as he eyed the milk bottles a few feet away from the edge of the counter. There was a trick to hitting them so that they would fall over. The setup of the bottles itself was meant to throw off the perspective of the player and was made under the assumption that every person would aim for the center of the three layer pyramid. Kristoff knew better however. Aiming for the middle would take out the top three bottles almost always, but hardly ever would it take any of the bottom three with it.

The young woman behind the counter slid the money off the countertop with the ease that came from doing such a task all day. She handed Kristoff a single baseball from below the counter and moved out of the way, chewing and snapping her gum, not even bothering to pay attention to his throw. Kristoff remembered being the same exact way. After seeing your twentieth attempt and failure in a day, you usually gave up and thought of when you got to go home and get out of the heat. This girl couldn’t care less how idiots decided to spend their money as long as she got hers at the end of the night.

Kristoff backed off the counter slightly, judging the angle of the bottles, even squinting at them for effect. If there was one thing he was good at in his life other than logging and making a fool of himself, it was carnival games. He wound up his pitch, curving it slightly as it left his hand.

The woman behind the counter jumped as she heard bottles clatter to the floor, her glazed over eyes shocking into focus as she looked at the bottles then incredulously at Kristoff. He could hear Anna clapping as he pointed to a plush bear on the shelf behind the bottles. For a fair prize it was of decent quality. Its fur was fluffy and golden brown in color, a tiny green bow was tied around its neck, and its black eyes were small and shining beneath the flashing lights of the stand as he handed it to Anna.

As they walked away Anna marveled at the toy. It wasn’t extremely large, but it was too big to fit in her bag. It was the perfect dimension for her to hold onto and squeeze as they walked away. “How did you do that?” She asked, dumbstruck and absolutely sure that it could not have been as easy as he made it. Her hand was in his again, her bear tucked under her arm and lemonade still in her hand.

Kristoff laughed. He hadn’t meant to show off, or rather he had, but he was now thoroughly unprepared for the attention he acquired from it. “Well when I wasn’t working around home, some summers when I was older I would work at the fair. Normally I just did grounds work and set up, but every now and then I’d run a game. Even when I wasn’t working in a stand them I played them plenty.” After that he just sort of shrugged, hoping she couldn’t see the color rising to his cheeks. He was still unused to attention and praise from anyone but his family. He wondered if he would ever get over Anna’s adoring praise.

“Well I think that’s awesome!” She responded. Kristoff thought that she shone brighter than any of the hundreds upon hundreds of lights that shone in the midway. “I never got out of the house much as a kid, so I never had a job until my parent’s passed away. I mean, I never really needed one, we had some money, and my job now isn’t even paid anyway, so I guess it’s not really a job at all. I just volunteer.”

Kristoff grinned, the thing he thought he might like most about Anna was her ramblings, the way she smiled and blushed and made all sorts of tiny emotive faces when she thought through her words. “Well I think that’s awesome.”

He repeated her words, of course he did so with much less gusto than she had originally said it, but he meant it. What she did was amazing. He knew firsthand how much her job took, and how much she did with it.

Anna blushed, “Thanks.”

“Thanks for doing it.”

“Well thanks for tonight.” She said as she looked up at him, releasing his hand and stopping his walking by taking a step in front of him. “It’s been a lot lately… I mean I’ve been stressed, so I just… I needed this.”

Her eyes were shining and full of sincerity. “Thank you Kristoff.”

He hadn’t realized how close she had gotten to him, how close he had gotten to her in return. It all felt so natural to him in the moment, and as she looked up at him expectantly he searched his fogged mind for words.

“You’re welcome.” He said finally, “It’s the least I could do… I mean with everything with Sven and…”

He trailed off as she wrapped two thin, slender arms around him, squeezing tightly. “I think you and I both know that that’s not the reason you brought me here tonight.”

He slowly but surely wrapped his own arms around her. She was so small in his arms, and off the path and out of the flow of traffic he felt like he was alone with her.

“It wasn’t the reason why you brought me to the hospital either, or the reason you took me to campus the other day either. You might not say a lot Kristoff, but your face reads like a popup book.” She was glad that they were in the shadows as she blushed. She hoped he couldn’t see how red her face was. She also prayed that she was on the right track and that he wasn’t mere moments away from telling her that she was “a nice girl” or something related to that, but that he only wanted to be her friend.

Such words never came from his mouth. He would never lie to her and say he wasn’t interested in her. He also couldn’t find the words to speak. So he just held her closer and tighter. Finally his mind came up with the words to describe what he wanted to express. “I like you.” It was three simple words, and he hated how childish they sounded. He was like a little boy on the playground trying to kiss a girl for the first time. In fact he was even worse than that as he had never kissed a girl, nor was he even attempting to do so. “Maybe you feel the same, and if you do… maybe we can do this slow?”

He had never had someone reduce him so completely to fragility. He was a snarky, but quiet joker by nature. He was gruff often, and now he was reduced to the complacency of a kitten by a beautiful woman.

“I think that I would like that.”

Releasing his arms from around her he smiled. This was something foreign, something new and strange, but beautiful.

However as Anna turned and froze in place, he could feel something was wrong. A man was approaching them quickly from a ways off where he had been watching them. Neither of the pair had noticed his presence while they were embracing and speaking, but once Anna had caught sight of him and his approach, her face had blanched.

“What do you think you’re doing with my fiancé?”


	6. Confrontation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Anna is a bad ass and yet is still working towards being herself again. Tried not to make it too angsty for you all.

Kristoff immediately stepped between Anna and the man. He knew that she could fight her own battles, but he felt the need to protect her. He had just held her thigh and expressed his feeling for her. There was no doubt that he was still learning about Anna, but one thing he was certain of about her was that she was not the type of woman to hold one man and be engaged to another.

Anna gritted her teeth as she stepped to Kristoff’s side. She rested her hand on his arm gently, gaining strength from him as she tried to act with the confidence she held in her heart. She would not let her knees quake or allow her hands to shake as she stood before the cruel man.

He was sneering at her, but she would give him no satisfaction in his actions. She wouldn’t flinch again, she wouldn’t falter. How he had even found her in the first place was a mystery. They hadn’t been in contact in a full year. He lived down South in a bustling city and though his family he had offices in Arendelle, there was no possible way that he would just be at the North County fair by chance. No, it was obvious that he had followed her there, followed them to the very spot in which they currently stood.

Anna was furious. “Does a restraining order mean nothing to you?” She inquired as she glared back into his eyes. She had a fire in her own, an anger there that she was forced to cool as she reminded herself that she couldn’t punch himself in the nose again. Even if she really wanted to, she knew that it wouldn’t do any good in the long run.

He scoffed, “Like anyone is going to believe you.” He took a step towards her, but fell back onto his heels as she stood taller in opposition to him. “Why would I be here, and why would I expect to see you here. I’m simply shocked that on a night out I happened to bump into my property in the arms of another man.”

Anna stood even straighter in front of him. Her face was an impenetrable mask of calm and strength. He may like to throw his money and bravado about like it made him some kind of big man, buts she knew that she was and always would be better than him. It had taken a while to figure it out, but now she was certain of the fact that he was nothing but dirt and rubbish waiting to be crushed under her heel. He was beneath her, and she would ensure that he knew it.

“I don’t know, maybe because you’re a sociopath.” She chuckled darkly at her own comment then spat at his fancy designer shoes. She was channeling Elsa and her raw newly recovered strength of heart as she stood against the boy who believed himself to be a man.

“I’m not your fiancé Hans, and I am no one’s property.” She practically knocked him over with the power of her rage filled energy. “Now get the hell away from me before I call the cops. Crawl back into whatever dark little hole you slithered out of.”

He backed up a step, but didn’t leave without reminding Anna of the reason she had left him in the first place, his cruelty and hatred for the family she so loved.

“How’s your invalid? Oh my mistake, you call her a sister right.” He cackled, “You know you shouldn’t get so attached to things that are on their way out. You shouldn’t name something destined to die.”

She shot him another look of contempt, but before she could even open her mouth to speak Kristoff was practically nose to nose with Hans. “I think Anna told you to go home.” He growled looming over the shorter man with eyes full of malice. He didn’t know Hans, but he knew his kind well enough. He hated the type of person who believed themselves to be above others, especially the spoiled rich kid type that grew up believing that they could have whatever they wanted and that the rules didn’t apply to them.

He wouldn’t let a man like that so much as lay a finger on Anna. He would not let him continue to reproof her for being a human being with thoughts and ideas, nor would he let him speak another word against Elsa. He may not know either of the Arendelle sisters completely, but he knew them both enough to know that he cared about them. He knew that he wouldn’t let him speak ill of them. He had been raised to stand up for what he believed in and do what was right. He would protect his friends with everything he had.

Hans balked and backed away from the pair as Kristoff caught Anna’s hand up in his own, lacing their fingers together plainly in his sight. He could feel Anna squeezing his fingers in support, and he squeezed back. It was their unspoken way to say that they were both alright.

The dark red haired man backed away, but tried to look tough as he turned away from Anna laughing. “Fine.” He said, words directed at Kristoff, “Keep the little prude. See if I care.” He walked away, but after a moment turned back and called, “She’s your problem now.”

The moment that Hans was out of sight Anna’s body went slack. Kristoff caught her around the waist with strong arms, but she waved him off. She could stand, she could walk, but she felt like all the energy had been siphoned out of her body when the adrenaline faded away into nothingness. She tried to breathe in and out calming breaths, but it wasn’t much help against the torrent of chaos in her mind. How did he find me? Did he actually leave? Is he going to come back? Should I call the police? How did I suck Kristoff into this?

Her heart seized up with cold once she realized the entirety of Han’s contrivance. She felt frozen in place, entirely numb. It was her fault that Hans had followed them, and it was her fault that the tall blonde man at her side now had the side burned creature to contend with.

Her hands shook. The right shivering in Kristoff’s hand as she felt the panic settle into her very bones. Hans was a monster, he would stop at nothing to get what he wanted, and what he wanted was to see the Arendelle sisters’ misery.

Most recently he had tried to get Elsa removed from residence at her care facility and to get Anna kicked out of college before she even started. The pair had publically shamed him and as a result he would stop at nothing to exact revenge upon them.

He certainly had the money and resources to do whatever he wanted. He had even somehow had caused the registration error which Anna had spent hours upon hours contending with in her college registrar’s office. Apparently there had been some sort of outside hack into their computer system which had deleted her file. Luckily they still had a hard copy of some of her information, but she was forced to retake math placement exams and prove her prior credits through hours of time and what felt like hundreds of emails written to the College Board.

She had absolutely zero doubt in her mind that he would try to get Kristoff kicked out of his house, or to destroy his ability to work in some way, shape, or form.

Acting like he didn’t care was exactly that, an act. Anna knew what an excellent actor he could be if he wanted to. She knew how he wanted to ruin her life, and how now by association, Kristoff’s as well.

Feeling her shake, Kristoff pulled Anna to his chest. He didn’t think about it, he just did it, and it felt right. She dissolved into tears against his chest, and he held on tighter. He didn’t know anything about the man who had just accosted them, only that his name was Hans and that his clothes were far too nice for the county fair. Kristoff assumed that he was Anna’s ex-boyfriend. Placing a large hand in her hair, he brushed it down gently. He wasn’t sure how to calm her, but he supposed that this was as good a place as any to start.

He ignored the lights, the noise, the passersbys that looked at them strangely. He just held onto her, trying to remind her that he was there and that Hans was gone. He would look after her. “Hey, do you want to get out of here?”

She nodded yes as she pushed away from him. She couldn’t help but feel as if letting Hans ruin her night was letting him win, but as she picked the bear off a nearby bench she tried to tell herself the whole night wasn’t ruined. Patting the dust from the bear’s fabric fur she decided that she would try to focus on the good. There had been too much of it to let him take it away from her.

Wiping the backs of her hands across puffy red eyes, kneading at them with palms of her hands to rid the last of the tears she let herself smile again, even if it was lack luster. Taking his hand Anna found peace in Kristoff’s touch. He was strong and warm. He wasn’t upset with her and she knew it. He just led her out of the fairgrounds and through the muddy parking lot to where his truck sat.

Reminding herself that he wasn’t angry with her Anna finally found the strength to say what she had longed to verbalize since Han’s had first shown up. “I’m so sorry that I got you mixed up into this. I never thought that he would be here.” 

Kicking at the muddy grass with the toe of her converse she sighed. “He’ll probably try to do something to you. He’s a real ass when he doesn’t get his way, so please if he does anything let me know so I can report it. I’ve got a restraining order and a complaint file, but he’s got money and that tends to make things go away. I’m so sorry I got you involved, but maybe if the police see he’s terrorizing more than just me and my sister they’ll make sure things don’t just blow into the wind.”

Kristoff just shrugged. “It’s not your fault that he does what he does Anna. You didn’t get me involved in anything. I got myself involved, and I don’t regret it.”

He looked over at his truck and then back at Anna. “Would slashed tires be something that you’d put in that file?”

He had noticed it a few moments before, but he had waited for her to be done speaking first, his mother had taught him his manners and around Anna he tried to use them. His truck was his baby. As old as she was, he kept her running, he washed her, waxed her, kept her free of rust and made sure her engine was in tip top shape. Given his attachment to the vehicle he was screaming on the inside, panic filling his heart before he allowed his mind to quell it.

He’d fixed her before and he’d fix her again. On his exterior he tried to be the embodiment of calm and plastered on a fake smile for her sake. It really wasn’t her fault, he knew that, and he didn’t want her to feel as if she were to blame.

“Oh my God!” She said, head falling into her hand, “I’ll call the cops.” Her hands fumbled with the clasp on her bag, one hand holding on to her bear.

Kristoff waved her off calmly, catching her hand again in his own. “I’ll call the sheriff, he’s here anyway. Don’t worry.”

Anna smiled lightly with Kristoff’s words, “You know he lives right down the street from us, right?” She had lived most of her life with Kai and his wife Gerda as neighbors. They had been the first to stand up for the Arendelle sisters after their parent’s death. Kai was the only officer to actually take Anna’s complaints against Hans with any seriousness. She had received her restraining order against the smarmy side burned corporate prince after Kai’s recent promotion to Sheriff.

Kristoff smiled, “Yeah, he’s the only one I knew in town before meeting you and Elsa. He and Gerda are the ones who suggested I move into town. They’re old family friends.”

“I grew up around them.” Anna said, lips parting over white teeth, “It’s such a small world.”

Kristoff agreed before pulling out his phone, a brick like old flip open model, to dial the old cop’s number. After explaining the situation and agreeing to wait until the fair was over for him to come over and check on the car Kristoff called back home.

“Yeah, sorry to call so late, really, no… I mean I’m sorry to wake you up. I know you don’t think it’s a bother Dad, but I didn’t want to have to wake you up… Well my tires are slashed. Yeah, all four.” He paused for a moment before covering the phone partially with his hand and harshly whispering, “No Dad, it’s not because of an angry girl.”

Anna could hear the man’s rolling laughter through the phone. It was infectious, even from the distance Anna was at. It brought a smile to her face again.

Kristoff had never really said much of anything about his family other than a few brief stories about his childhood and his occasional mentioning of hid adoption and upbringing. He wasn’t an overly sharing man, but if Anna asked questions he would always answer. Even from the few tidbits she had about them, Anna knew that Kristoff’s family loved him very much. That alone was enough to assure her that they were good people.

“Okay, we can get it in the morning. Yeah. Can I borrow your car for tonight? I need to bring a friend home.” There was a short pause immediately followed by a redness rising on Kristoff’s cheeks. “Yes Dad, my friend is a girl.”

Another bought of laughter came through the phone’s speakers, but this time Anna didn’t just smile, she laughed along with it as well. Kristoff looked mortified, but Anna smiled at him broadly. He was doing his best and she appreciated it more than he would ever know.

Kristoff was still speaking with his father when the first blast went off. The sound of it covered his voice, but it didn’t frighten Anna in the least. This, at least, she knew.

Staring straight up at the sky Anna’s smile changed into a look of awe. Glittering red light fell from its flower like pattern and drifted away into the dark night sky. She loved fireworks, always finding amazement in the beauty of them. It was counterintuitive to think that such beauty could come from the destructive power of explosive detonation, but Anna loved that about it. It was a contradiction, a stunning and breathtaking contradiction she had loved since childhood.

Kristoff tangled his fingers into Anna’s. His father was on his way, and he couldn’t help but to stare at Anna. She was so beautiful with the colored light, her eyes reflecting every blast. She was so lovely when she was excited or in awe. There was something about the fragile innocence in her eye that made Kristoff smile. He wanted to protect her, to make sure that she always found awe in the world. Though he still wasn’t sure what they were exactly, only knowing one another for a couple weeks, he knew that when he was with her he felt the same awe.

Tugging at her fingers gently he led her back to the truck, having something like a plan in his mind. After reaching the passenger door of the truck he pulled it open and removed a blanket from behind the seat.

It was one of his mother’s old handmade quilts, the one she had insisted he keep in his truck in case of emergency. Though he wasn’t sure whether or not their current situation truly counted as an emergency he laid the soft worn material into the truck’s bed, glad that he had washed it out before coming. He dropped the back gate and led Anna in, he wordlessly lay down on it, beckoning her to do the same.

Laying on the blanket Anna shifted tightly to his side. In truth she still had no idea where her comfort with him came from. It was simply innate and natural whenever he was around. He was warm and comforting even though his edges were a little rough.

He was warm against her as she watched more and more explosions of light fly through the sky. Her favorites were the white spiral ones. They flew faster than the rest through the air and fell into little tightly curled slinky shapes. They made a very high pitched squealing noise as they did so, but she liked the sound. It reminded her of being a child again.

Though they rarely strayed very far from home for Elsa’s sake, Anna lived close enough to the city’s largest park that she could always watch fireworks go off from her own backyard each summer. She had always loved the explosions of color and light. As a very little girl Elsa had told her that they were magical ice crystals that had been enchanted to fly through the sky before melting. Though she was a grown woman now who understood that the explosions had much more to do with chemistry than any kind of magic, some part of her still wanted to hold onto the childish belief. She wanted to believe that witches or dragons or pixies were the ones to make the displays of majesty occur before her eyes.

She squeezed Kristoff’s hand a little tighter. It was even easier to believe in magic when he was beside her. After all he had to be some sort of magic or enchantment himself. She had never met a man quite like him. She had never imagined falling in love again.

Kristoff watched the sky with a smile on his face. Gone were his worries about his truck as he knew what was done was done. He would get new tires and fix her up like he always did. It wasn’t anything to worry over, especially when he had something even more important on his mind.

He couldn’t help himself when he watched Anna more than the fireworks. She was the far more interesting of the two to watch. The way she smiled, oohed and excitedly squeaked was so cute and childlike that he had to remind himself not to laugh. Occasionally her mouth fell agape in awe and it made him do the same. She was beautiful and full of boundless energy. That was of course until her eyelids got heavy, drooping slightly, fluttering until they finally shut tight.

He could hardly believe the way that she slept through the large explosions of the finale and the subsequent sounds of motors of all kinds pulling out of the muddy field. She didn’t wake for the sound of the fairgoers leaving, nor the sounds of the beer garden’s grand exodus ten or so minutes later.

He had hoped for all their sakes as well as for the sakes of anyone out on the road that they weren’t planning to drive home. Everyone who walked out the gates seemed to be more than a little sloshed in his eyes, and he hated to see anyone get hurt over a dumb mistake.

After working his way slowly out from Anna’s sleeping embrace he sat up on the side of the truck’s box. He faced her, however he tried not to stare at her as she slept. He wasn’t the type of guy who made any sort of plans or intentions to creep on a woman as she slept. Despite the fact that he liked Anna, and the fact that the gentle restfulness of her sleep brought a smile to his face, he averted his eyes.

Soon enough the lot was empty of all its people, with the exception of the pair. It was also empty of almost all its cars, Kristoff glad to see that almost everyone leaving the beer tent had left their vehicles behind. Kristoff looked up into the starry sky and sighed. He was oddly thankful for the night, even if he was put in a bad position. He was glad to have spent some time with Anna, to be there with her to help her face a man whose heart as full of evil, to go on this adventure with her, he was grateful.

When he saw headlights come down the path he relaxed even more. He could hear the rumbling motor of his father’s old car as it approached. Lord knew how Cliff continued to patch up the fifty year old Chevelle every time it fell apart, but it always looked better than new when he was done with it.

Kristoff remembered being under its hood as a kid, learning to fix things when they broke, learning how to take care of what he had. Cliff’s hands had always guided him through his life both literally and figuratively. He had asked himself countless times, what would Dad do?

When Sven had run away from home it had been the first thing he had asked himself. He had called home to see if Sven had run back there, but even before speaking with his father and mother the question had been asked and the answer had been obvious.

What would Dad do? He would fix what was broken. He would pull his family back together, he would find Sven, and in his footsteps Kristoff had done so, leading him through a strange mix of fate that had led him to where he currently sat.

He knew what his mom would say. “Everything happens for a reason baby,” and he sincerely hoped that she was right. Then again, Bulda was always right.

The door on the blue car opened and shut revealing a short, but broad man with dark skin and glittering brown eyes. “Kristoff!” He greeted as he approached with arms wide open. Nothing had changed between them, not in his time in the cabin they had given him, not even in the time since he had moved into Arendelle.

Dad was always Dad for Kristoff, and he wasn’t sure if there had ever before been a time in his life in which he had been happier to see him than he was in that moment. Maybe the day they decided to adopt him, but other than that he had never before felt so relieved to see his father’s face.

Kristoff hopped from the truck’s side and returned the greeting. “Hey Dad!” He said as he approached the man in the same manner, the pair meeting in the middle for a bear hug just as a sheriff’s car approached their reunion.

Anna yawned and rolled slightly, pulling the blanket closer to her and moving the teddy bear clutched in her left hand so that it was pinned by her arms to her chest. She had a vague inkling that she should wake up as she heard voices around her. She didn’t know what they were discussing, and as she didn’t much care. She was tired and above all things she just wanted to sleep.

She tuned out the sounds of an approaching cop car and slept straight through the ensuing conversation, this time one held between three men instead of two. The only thing that jarred her was the feeling of being lifted, blanket and all, into someone’s arms.

She would have panicked and woken up if it weren’t for the fact that her partially conscious mind realized that it was not just someone picking her up, it was Kristoff. He was warm and she melted into his touch, reaching up with eyes still shut to touch him in return. She assumed that it was a dream and quieted her mind to restful, thoughtless sleep again. It had been a long night. She deserved some rest.


	7. Waking Up

Anna’s eyelids fluttered open as they were met with a bright light. She was warm, comfortable, well rested, and a little voice in the back if her head told her she was safe. Lips curled into a smile with the thought and her eyes opened to reveal an unfamiliar wooden slat ceiling.

Shooting upright from shock, Anna took a deep breath and found that her eyes immediately locked onto a giggling form who had half hidden herself in the door frame. She couldn’t have been much older than eight or nine, and was a short, skinny little thing. Her eyes glittered with a naughty glee as she watched Anna awake and stare at her. White teeth shone against almond skin, her little face framed by shoulder length black curls.

Anna opened her mouth to ask the little girl exactly where it was that they were, but before she could get the words out, the door swung open and the girl squealed excitedly before scurrying away. “Crystal, I told you to stay out of my room!” His voice was grumpy, but sweet. It was obvious that he wasn’t truly angry with the child, but rather was teasingly authoritative.

Anna immediately smiled and relaxed as she realized who was shouting after the mischievous child. “Kristoff!” she called out to him as she pulled the sheets off from her form, revealing that she was still in her clothes from the night before. The night had been so good and so bad that she wasn’t really sure of what to think about the event yet, but for now she was happy to be gone from it.

“Oh!” Kristoff said as he turned around shyly. “Sorry about that Anna, she just gets curious.”

She gave him a soft smile in return despite the fact that she was entirely and extremely confused. She wanted to know where she was and what was going on, but all she could choke out was an “Oh” to match his.

Who that little girl had been only added to her confusion. It was obvious by his actions that Kristoff loved her very much, but Anna’s mind, as tired as it was could at least assume that there was no way that she was Kristoff’s kid. Not only due to the fact that they looked nothing alike, but also because the child had to have been at least seven. He was too young to have a child that age, or at least she was sure that he would have mentioned something before now. She also laughed at herself when she remembered that according to the mountain man himself, Anna had been the only woman in his life so far. She smiled at the thought, her mind coming up with foolish conclusions due to the sleep still clinging to it.

“I’m glad you’re up.” He said with a half-smile. There was an awkwardness in the air between them that made Anna go pale. Maybe there had been more to the night before than she remembered. She remembered touching him, she certainly remembered wanting to do more than that. She blushed hot, opposing the lack of color that had been on her face just minutes before. 

Her eyes must have betrayed her panic and worry as they glanced from him to the floor as Kristoff immediately and without a word from her jumped into explanation.

“I, uhh, you… you fell asleep in the truck bed last night. I didn’t want to wake you. Actually I tried, but you’re a really heavy sleeper. I couldn’t get you up and I didn’t have a key for your house. It didn’t feel right to go through your bag or anything and I didn’t want to call your sister so late, so I thought I’d bring you here. I thought that maybe, you know, you would rather stay at my parent’s house than mine. I know we’re still getting to know each other and I didn’t want you to think I was going to do…” He paused for a moment falling over his own thoughts and words before taking a deep breath and continuing, “They’re a little intrusive like my little sister that you met, Crystal, but they mean well and I figured that maybe this would be the best place for you to be.”

Anna interrupted his ramblings with a smile and a laugh once she was no longer confused. “I wasn’t sure where I was, I’m glad you brought me here though, you met my family, it’s time that I met yours.”

Kristoff smiled, “I’m glad you feel that way, but I think I should warn you, they’re a little… well they’re just a lot. They’re a lot of everything.”

Anna smiled although she wasn’t quite sure of what he meant by it. She was just happy to meet them and was grateful that they had allowed her to stay. Looking around her, her eyes searched for her bag. “Just let me call Elsa first. I want to let her know where I am.”

Kristoff walked over to the small wooden desk in the corner of his room and lifted her small bag from its top. He remembered setting it there the night before just after he had lowered her to the bed, his bed. He tried to shoo away the color that rose to his cheeks at the thought struck him. He had never planned, even in his teen years, to have a woman sleeping in his childhood bedroom, the place where he had grown. There were still worn baseballs, bats, and mitts in the corner of his open closet. There was a record in his old suitcase Crosley, and on the walls there were pinned up drawings and photographs that ranged from when he was eight to age eighteen.

Handing the bag back to her, he realized that while his head had thought it was strange to have her there, his heart said that it was right. “You’re probably going to have to use the house phone if you want to call her though.” Kristoff said as Anna dug through the bag for her phone, pulling it free from the fabric. “The only place you get service around here is up in the hay loft, and you’re not exactly wearing climbing gear.”

Anna smiled, she had forgotten that he had been raised on a farm. She knew that he had mentioned it before and so she smiled at the thought of something she had never really seen before outside the pages of Old McDonald. “I want to check for texts before I call her though, just in case something happened or if she’s still sleeping. So I guess I’m climbing.”

Kristoff sighed and combed his hands through his hair, she was stubborn and as much as he hated to admit it, even to himself, he loved that about her. “Alright, but we’re on the second floor, so the only way to get to the barn is through the window or downstairs through the kitchen, and there’s no way Ma is going to let you out of her sight without breakfast.”

Her stomach had been rumbling since the moment she regained consciousness. In fact it was a wonder that Kristoff hadn’t heard it yet, or if he had Anna was surprised at his manners for not bringing it up. He liked to tease her usually, and she was sure the extremely manly sounds of her stomach would just be yet another point of his teasing towards her. Not that she minded.

Most of the time she teased him back. It was all part of the friendly easiness that had grown between them from the day they met. He teased her, she teased him back. It was their way of saying ‘I’m comfortable with you and I want you to know’. Anna couldn’t help but wonder if maybe it meant more now. After all they had both agreed that there was more than friendship between them, and though they didn’t have a label on their relationship quite yet she knew they would soon enough, especially being that it seemed the events of the night prior hadn’t scared him off.

“Breakfast sounds amazing right now.”

Kristoff chuckled lightly before offering his hand to Anna, “Your stomach already gave you away there. I will warn you though, my family’s going to have a field day with you.”

***

“And that was the last time we left him alone with markers.”

Anna laughed so hard she nearly spit out the mouthful of toast she had been eating. She was sure that she didn’t exactly look attractive at the moment, but it didn’t really matter as Kristoff was too busy looking away from her, blushing, and pleading with his mother to stop.

“Really Ma?” Kristoff asked as the entire room laughed at the story of his childhood. He had been six years old and had been given a marker set for Christmas, it wasn’t really a surprise that he had drawn on the family’s white cat.

He was still mischievous at that age, and while he was grateful that they hadn’t gotten out the photos of the event, he still wished it wasn’t his parent’s go to story. He also wished that at least one of his five siblings would back him up, but they were laughing as hard as Anna was. He made a mental note to tell similar stories once they were old enough to bring people home.

Anna smiled gently, “Oh trust me I’ve got worse stories from my childhood. I was really energetic so there isn’t much in our house I didn’t break or draw all over as a kid.”

Crystal, Kristoff’s youngest sister at age eight was seated at Anna’s side and giggled at the thought of hearing more stories. She had already taken a liking to Anna, just as the rest of the family had, and now that Anna had officially met her after the morning’s run in she felt as though the girl was very like herself at the same age.

Anna decided it was best to not go into any more detail upon such a realization. She didn’t want to give the impish but sweet child any ideas. Just two years older than Crystal was Amethyst. She sat across from Anna and was quite the opposite of her fiery younger sister. A very intelligent and happy young girl, Amethyst was withdrawn a bit more than the rest of her family.

She came off as a bit shy and was easily frightened by the appearance of a guest in her home, but she was nothing but kind. The only time she had started conversation with Anna was to ask her what books she liked. They had chatted briefly before the rest of her siblings had come to the table, and Anna had enjoyed her presence. She reminded her of her own sister, as Elsa had been much like her at that age when she wasn’t ill.

Next oldest was a tie between Jade and Jasper, the twins. They were fourteen and just as opposite as their younger sisters. Jade was quiet, relaxed and reserved, especially in comparison to the rest of her family. She had an easy smile but didn’t say much. On the other hand Jasper was fiery. Kristoff said it was because he lived in a house full of girls and had become jealous of Kristoff’s freedom since he had left. He loved his family though, that was evident. In fact a strong familial love was present in all the people around the table, and despite the fact that she was only a guest, Anna could feel it too.

The eldest of the siblings, with the exception of Kristoff, was Gemma. She was Anna’s age, tall, thin, and breathtakingly gorgeous. She had shining eyes and the kind of long straight black hair that most women would kill for. She was like her father in spirit and had a very patient air about her. She spoke kindly to Anna, inviting her into conversation often, and was the first to recognize the culture shock on Anna’s face when she saw the assembled family of eight all together.

She had realized quickly that Kristoff hadn’t exactly warned Anna that one of these things was not like the others, and to be precise that Kristoff himself was that thing. She teased that Kristoff was their “Marshmallow Brother” and explained how he had ended up the eldest child in an African American family.

With help from her mother, being that it was before her time, she explained how Kristoff had been adopted at a young age, Bulda and Cliff believing that they could not have children on their own. Shortly after Gemma had come along, but had been adopted as well. She was Bulda’s niece before tragedy struck her parents and had left her an orphan much like Kristoff.

Her Aunt and Uncle had adopted her as their own and she was so young that she never remembered having any other parents before. And for a while it was just her and Kristoff, but then a miracle happened in the form of the twins, followed later by Amethyst and Crystal. Bulda explained herself that the doctors had finally figured out the cause of her infertility and that after some tests she had started taking pills for a thyroid disorder that cleared things up. So biologically speaking only the youngest four were truly Bulda and Cliff’s own, but in their home family was about more than blood.

Gemma smiled at Kristoff and laughed. Sitting beside him, her hand was clasped against his shoulder lovingly. She said something to him about how if they didn’t tease him, he wouldn’t believe they loved him.

His reaction was to smiled defeatedly and to deflate even further when his mother, at the head of the table, started talking to Anna once again.

“Honestly I was so happy to see that Kristoff had brought a girl home that I could hardly contain myself this morning. I nearly cooked half the fridge I was in such a happy tizzy!”

Anna smiled, she certainly had gone above and beyond, the table set family style with bowls of biscuits, grits, and oatmeal along with platters of hot cakes, bacon, sausage, eggs, toast, and fresh fruit. There were also pitchers of orange juice and coffee that had been freshly made for the occasion. Anna had eaten so much she was sure that she wouldn’t be hungry until late that night.

“We were beginning to think that maybe he was a little bit…” she paused for a moment, “different. I mean big strong man like him not bringing in the ladies. I figured it meant he wasn’t interested if you catch my drift. I mean really, my boy’s so handsome what girl could hold back from such a man? Of course if he did happen to bring someone different home we would’ve loved him just the same, but I’m glad it’s you honey. You seem like a real sweetheart.”

Anna turned scarlet, just as Kristoff shouted another “Ma!” Across the table.  
“We’re not… Ma… wait… you thought I was…?”

Cliff started laughing again and patted his son on the shoulder his sister wasn’t holding. “Nothing wrong with it Kristoff, your Ma is just waiting on Grandkids.”

“Grandkids?” Kristoff repeated, shaking his head. He knew that his parents could only behave for so long. Shooting an apologetic look towards Anna he sunk into his chair. It was going to be a long couple of hours.

***

Kristoff walked slowly with Anna at his side. She was practically crawling and he knew it was due to his Ma’s insistence that she eat more after Anna had already claimed she was full. If there was one thing his mother wouldn’t tolerate, it was anyone leaving her table without an overly full stomach. He himself was feeling a little bit bloated as well, off his usual eating game since he had left home. However despite her obvious fullness Anna was no less feisty than usual.

“Hey, so what exactly did your Mom mean by saying that she wanted to give me a reading before? I kind of got lost in the tide of conversation and I don’t think anyone else heard her say it, but I just can’t drop things.” She laughed nervously and shrugged.

Kristoff stopped walking. He didn’t know how to respond. The question was entirely novel to him, and he was certain that the answer would be completely foreign to Anna. Sometimes it even sounded a little outlandish to him, but he never questioned his mother’s craft and he’d never had anyone ask him about it before.

Any words he thought he would be able to use to explain what it was his Mother did for a living caught in his throat. They had talked about their parents in the past and Kristoff remembered explaining his father’s work as a sometimes-mechanic-sometimes-farmhand-and-rancher, but he hadn’t brought up his mothers work. He never talked about it before, he didn’t ever have friends he needed to explain it to, and anyone who came to his mother for her services always knew what she did.

Finally he sighed, sucking it up and deciding to speak plainly. “Who knows, could’ve been tarot, palm, crystal, Ouija, psychic, all of the above…”

Anna looked at him, eyes wide. She had stopped walking when he had, and had thought for a moment that she had said something wrong. Kristoff had never just frozen up like that on her before, but now that he had answered she understood why it had taken him a moment. “That’s so…”

He cut her off. Just because he had never doubted his mothers work didn’t mean that he hadn’t heard the world’s criticism on the topic. He knew what people thought about the old ways his mother practiced. “Silly, Fake, Stupid, Crazy?” He asked, he had heard it all before.

Anna shook her head and took his hand in hers, “Cool. Kris, I think it’s cool.”

There was a fluttering in the pit of his stomach that had nothing to do with Anna’s thoughts on his mother’s work. Though he appreciated that she didn’t think his mother was insane, the rising warmth on his cheeks came from another part of their conversation. She had called him Kris. No one ever really shortened his name before, but when it came rolling off her tongue and past her lips he fell a little deeper in love. Maybe it was just the sound of it, or maybe it was the touch of her hand and the way her eyes had softened when she said it, whatever it was he smiled. He wouldn’t mind it if she called him that again.

Wordlessly he began walking again, leading her up into the hayloft above the barn where she promptly began to climb in search of service on her cell phone.

He tried to focus on her shoes as she went up the ladder ahead of him, the bottoms of the converse, their white walls, anything but her rear. He had a great view, but his Ma had raised a gentleman and he certainly couldn’t forget it when he was home.

He was lost in his own thoughts when he heard Anna suck in a short breath, her body freezing up on the ladder ahead of him. She was holding her phone out slightly and tearing his eyes away from her shoes he glanced up to see her eyes welling up with tears.

“It’s all my fault.” She choked out, pulling herself up the last ladder rung into the actual loft itself.

Kristoff rushed up the rest of the ladder only to find Anna sitting in a pile of hay with her head in her hands. “What’s your fault?”

Her eyes were red and her cheeks were streaked with hot tears. “I… I need to get home… he got to her.”


	8. I Will Be Right Here

Kristoff’s foot was to the floor, the accelerator pushing the car to its limits. He didn’t even remember asking his father for the keys though he was sure that he had. Either way he was sure that the older man wouldn’t care. After all Kristoff was simply acting in the same manner that he would if placed I a similar situation. He was just protecting what he loved, fixing what was broken.

The only thought on his mind was getting Anna to her sister. Though she had already promised him through tears that things weren’t as bad as she had made them sound, he needed to get Anna to Elsa. He blamed himself for not bringing her home the night before, but he hated one person even more than he hated himself. That person was Hans Westergaard. He had hurt the sisters he was beginning to care for like a part of his own family, and no one hurt his family without him hurting them back at least ten times worse.

“Hey, shhhh, Anna…” His hand slid from the gear shift and grabbed hers for a moment. He squeezed her hand tightly in his and ran his thumb over her knuckles. “It’ll be alright. I swear.”

He was uncertain as to whether or not reality would back up his words, but he prayed it would be so. The soothing effect they had on a still shaking Anna made him feel a strange gladness. He couldn’t take the pain away, but at least he was helping. Even if only a little.

Anna breathed in deep as Kristoff squeezed her hand both too tightly and not enough. His presence steadied her, helped her stay together when she felt cracked at the seams like a dropped china doll. When his hands released hers and reached again for the shifter she felt a sudden pang of loss. It were as if she has been whole for a moment then cut in half all at once. They had reached the city and Anna was vaguely aware of the fact that they had passed the shelter.

She was supposed to help out that night. She had been looking forward to it, and she was almost certain that she couldn’t now. Her body could barely conjure up the energy to move let alone lift bags of food and tend to the animals.

She couldn’t even care for herself. She was lucky that Kristoff had been there when she had received Elsa’s text, otherwise she wasn’t sure whether or not she would have made it back down the ladder and out of the barn. Her cell was still clutched in her hand, the screen registering the words “Kicked out, probably his fault.”

It read very nonchalant to anyone who didn’t know their situation. Elsa was obviously downplaying for Anna’s sake. But why wouldn’t she? Anna was just getting her to open up again, and it would be just something like this to get her to cut ties, turn tail and run. That scared Anna to death, almost as much as the thought of Elsa not having round the clock medical care scared her. Moving out of her hospital room might not sound like a huge deal to most people, but Anna knew just how dangerous it was for Elsa to be alone, even on her good days things could go wrong at the drop of a hat.

A cold feeling seized her chest as she realized Elsa was coming home. It would take months to get paperwork back in order for Elsa to get back in the hospital’s care facility, and that’s saying that Hans didn’t muck things up too terribly. Wishing for that was like expecting a fire to not burn down a whole house, just the living room. It was more than a person could hope for.

She would have to drop out of school and stop working at the shelter. She would be just as isolated as she had been as a kid. Her freedom was going to be gone. They were closing the gates. She loved her sister, and would take care of her in any way possible, but Anna knew that she was just going to shut her out again over something silly, something about the guilt she felt for being ill all the time. Anna was going to have no one. Maybe when everything fell apart she wouldn’t even have Kristoff. She wouldn’t blame him for leaving her with her mess, but her soul was shattered at the thought.

“Anna! Anna!” Kristoff was shouting at her, trying to pull her out of the headspace she had gone into. He was scared for her. She was acting tough, but the look on her face said otherwise. She looked petrified. He wasn’t reaching her, so he slammed on the brakes. “Anna, Anna please you need to breathe!”

She hadn’t even realized that she was holding her breath until the car jerked to an abrupt halt. She choked on air as she gulped it down. How could she have forgotten to breathe?

She just cried.

His mind switched tracks faster than it ever had before. Is first priority was no longer getting Anna to Elsa. That had taken the back burner. Right now he needed to make her okay. He’d done it once, but his confidence level to do so again was very low.

Twice in two days he had seen Anna hurt. It was too much. He wanted to take all the pain in her life and shoulder it himself, but it wasn’t possible and he knew it. Tears were streaming down her face and it felt as though he were being stabbed in the gut and the chest simultaneously with every little droplet that fell. He was going to kill Hans so that he could never hurt Anna again, but that wasn’t what she needed right now.

He turned the wheel to pull over to the side of the road before putting the car in park and unbelting himself. He was half shocked that in his rush he had even remembered to put it on, but he was glad he had, and he was glad Anna did as well. He moved quickly to remove hers as well, quickly unbuckling her and tugging her body into his arms.

She recoiled after a moment. Weakly pushing away at his arms, she made tiny crying distressed sounds. She didn’t want to be touched, she just wanted the all-consuming fear and loss to leave her thoughts. She felt dirty and wrong. It was all her fault and she had thought of bringing Elsa home as a burden. She was angry with herself, and with the whole damn world. Kristoff’s comfort only hurt. He was too kind, too good, and surely she didn’t deserve it. His love was the blade that would kill her.

As soon as he realized that Anna was pushing him away he let go. H frowned, but understood the way she was acting. Not everyone wanted to be touched when they were upset, in fact there were times in which the last thing he wanted was human contact.

Anna was still sobbing beside him. “Wha… what are you d-doing? We-we need to get to Elsa!”

He hated to see the look on her face. Her blue eyes were full of pain and betrayal. He wished she didn’t have to feel pain like that, and he hated that he had to make it worse before it got better.

“We’re not moving until you calm down a little Anna. I’m not going to have you pass out, okay.” He held up a hand but didn’t reach out to touch her. He put it back down on the seat far enough away that she wouldn’t feel like he was going to touch her again, but close enough that she could take it if she wanted to. He really hoped that she wanted to. “I just need to know that you’re okay.”

Anna understood why he was concerned. She was a wreck. She took a deep breath and steadied herself, but couldn’t stop choking on the air she breathed in. She wanted to explain what was going on in her head, but she was embarrassed. He had already done so much for her, he shouldn’t have to hear her go on about her silly insecurities. The look in his eyes changed her mind.

His eyes said everything she wanted to hear and more. They showed concern, but were warm and comforting seas of chocolate honey staring at her like she was the most precious thing on the planet. His eyes said “tell me” and “nothing you could ever say would be stupid.” Most importantly, everything about his body, from the way he was angled to her to his hand being just close enough for her to take into her own, said “I’m here for you.”

She didn’t even know hoe tense her body was until it released all at once like a balloon on a tack. She could breathe again, she could speak. “I’m afraid.”  
He was both shocked and unsurprised when she spoke. He was relieved regardless, even though Anna being afraid crushed him, he was glad that she had put a name to whatever it was she had been feeling.

“I’m afraid too.” The words were honest and he didn’t even have to think before he spoke. It came easy.

He was terrified. Anna was beginning to mean so much to him, even though what they had was new and strange for him, it was something more amazing than anything he had ever experienced in his life before. Now someone was trying to steal it away from them. Slashing his tires had been a dick move, something small, one thing. This however, going after family, it was personal, and it scared the shit out of him. Elsa may not be his sister, but she was Anna’s so she may as damn well be his own. He hadn’t been there to help her and he had kept her sister away as well. He didn’t know what the future was going to bring, and that was more frightening than anything, but he knew he was going to fight his fears and be there for them both. Anna was worth fighting for, and despite barely knowing her, he knew Elsa was too.

“Why are you afraid?”

Though he was thinking about it, it was hard to find a way to verbalize his feelings. He wasn’t the sort of man who talked about emotions often, he was hardly a waxing poet. “Don’t want to lose you, or Elsa, or what this is starting to be. I’m scared that I can’t do anything to help, and that’s all I want to do.”

Anna sighed, “Do you really want to stay?”

He could only nod.

She looked down into her lap. “I don’t want you to leave… everyone else does. I can’t be alone again. I was like that for a long time, and if Elsa is coming home, I’m going to need to be there to take care of her. I’m probably not going to have a lot of free time. I’m going to have to leave school, stop volunteering at the shelter…”

“Why?”

The word wasn’t combative, just curious, like he really didn’t understand what she had just said.

“Because I need to take care of her. She needs round the clock care, and I can’t hire a nurse or anything unless I get a job and I don’t want to be away from her even if she tries to shut me out again. We’re all the other has.”

Kristoff shook his head, “Anna, you don’t have to do this alone. You don’t need to leave school, or quit working at the shelter. You’ve got people who love you, people who want to help you.”

She shook her head, “No, I can’t ask people to help. She’s my sister, I have to do it on my own… beside who would be willing to help me when I can hardly help myself.”

The words were breaking his heart, but he wouldn’t let her fall apart. He was there for her whether or not she knew it. “Well me and Sven for starters. And Kai and Gerda, they’re good people, and from my conversation with Kai the other night they love you girls. He’s already promised to try to take care of things with Hans no matter how he has to do it.”

He swore he could see a hint of a smile behind her sad eyes. When her hand touched his, he thought that he had done something right, when he felt her tug herself up and across the seat to be closer to him, resting against his side, he knew he had.

“Okay.”  
***  
Despite their much needed stop they still made it to the hospital in record time. Anna had managed to pull herself together by the time they got through the doors and Kristoff was proud of her. He couldn’t even imagine what was going on inside her head, but she had been able to maintain balance despite everything that was going wrong. She was so strong of heart, yet another reason why he was falling in love with her.

He fell back as Anna rushed into her sister’s arms, both speaking at once, apologizing for things that were out of both of their control. They held on tight to one another and neither shed a tear. As always despite her quiet apologies, Elsa was the perfect image of calm. Kristoff hoped that there wasn’t something more worrisome going on below the surface, and he knew he had to speak with her. He was almost certain that they could come to a mutual agreement as far as what needed to happen next. They both had Anna’s best interests at heart, even if for different reasons.

“I’m already packed, I just need some paperwork filled out and a way to get it all home.”

Having been standing back for the most of the sister’s exchange, Kristoff stepped towards them at Elsa’s words. He was going to be helpful if he could, especially knowing that Anna’s car, much like his truck, was still very much out of commission. “It’ll take a few trips, but we can use the car. If we start now Anna can fill out the paperwork and we can get the first load back to your house.”

Anna gave Kristoff a shocked look, “No, you’ve already done enough, I couldn’t ask that of you.”

“You didn’t, I offered.”

Elsa quirked a brow at him, and Kristoff hoped that she at least understood that he needed to speak with her. Of course he wanted to help simply to help them both, but ever since Anna’s breakdown Kristoff knew he had to speak to Elsa. Even if they hardly knew each other, and even though she probably had a better grasp on her sister’s mental state than he did, he needed to speak with her.

“That sounds like a good plan actually. I want to get home as soon as I can so I can figure out how we’re going to swing this.”

Anna couldn’t find words, her mouth open as she looked between Kristoff and her sister. It was obvious to them both that Anna had not expected for the two to be so eager to get going, and while that wasn’t the whole truth of the matter, it would work as an explanation for the moment as far as Kristoff was concerned.

“Oh, uhh, okay. I’ll start working on the paperwork… are you sure you guys can handle it okay?”

“Don’t worry.” Elsa said with a slight smile, her voice low and soothing, “I’m sure Kristoff is capable of bringing me and a few boxes home.” She looked at him, smile tentative, but genuine, “Right?”

He simply nodded for lack of words. There was nothing he could say to put Anna more at ease than her sister already had. So he simply stayed quiet as the pair chatted briefly and followed Elsa down the hallway to her room to collect her things. He didn’t need to speak much yet, he just needed to formulate a plan as to what he would say to Elsa.  
***  
Boxes and bags were loaded into the trunk of the car faster than Kristoff would have imagined. Though Elsa’s room had seemed full of things upon his last visit, it was shockingly little when packed. He knew better than to comment on it, especially after attempting to make sure Elsa didn’t carry anything to the car. Needless to say it didn’t work and though she was far too calm to yell at him for underestimating her abilities, he had received a rather icy glare when he had attempted to take a box from her hand.

From that moment on he had realized there was only one way to deal with the elder Arendelle sister, and that was directly. “Ready to go?”  
Elsa simply nodded as she buckled herself in the passenger seat where her sister had been less than a half hour before. The plan was to drop Elsa off home, unload her things, then return to the hospital to collect Anna. It was a simple plan, and though it was necessary, Kristoff still felt a twinge of guilt at the thought of leaving Anna alone.

They drove down the main street of the city with Kristoff on autopilot. He knew how to get home like he knew how to tie his shoe. It was simple and easy, a no fuss route without much for stoplights or signs. They would be there before they knew it.

“So what did you want to talk about?”

Kristoff jumped. There was something about Elsa’s ability to speak in such a simple nonchalant manner that always caught Kristoff off guard. She was extremely observant.

“I uhhh…” He would have smacked himself in the face if not for the fact that he was driving. He sounded like an idiot, and he hated it. “Ummm, I just wanted to tell you that, well… Anna’s pretty stressed over this whole thing, and while I don’t know all the details and I probably shouldn’t say… I mean I guess what I’m getting at is she’s scared, and I just wanted to let you know that you’re not alone. Okay? Neither of you are.”

With that her mask cracked. There was something soft in her eyes, a weak pain, but also an air of gratefulness. Her lips turned up into a sad smile, and she sighed. “Thank you.”

He didn’t know what he had been expecting, but that certainly wasn’t it. “You’re, um, you’re welcome.”

She laughed a little then, just a small chuckle. She covered her mouth when she did it, but it was something.

Kristoff practically sighed in relief. He was no expert in the field of social grace, but as it seemed things were going better than he could have expected. Perhaps being there for the sisters wouldn’t be quite as terrifying as it had seemed just an hour before.


	9. The New Normal

Kristoff sighed as he drove back to his home in the city. It had been a long day and he was grateful to have his own truck back. His father had thankfully had a second set of tires for his truck hanging around the farm. After returning his father’s car, it had only taken the pair a half an hour to find the tires in one of the older storage sheds on the outer edge of the main hay field. After that, between the two of them and a little help from Jasper, they had his truck ready to go an hour and a half after finding and digging out the tires.

As he had expected, Cliff hadn’t been upset with him for taking his car. Rather, he and Bulda as well as his siblings had been worried for him and Anna, not knowing where it was that they had run off to.

A gut feeling that told him they would worry too much told him not to clue them in on the full extent of what had happened since he left home, but settled instead to inform them of Elsa’s sickness, Hans’s meddling, and the new limitations on Anna’s freedoms now that her sister would be living home. He left out the parts about Anna’s breakdown and his heart to heart with Elsa. It would just cause them unnecessary worry, and they were already overly concerned as it was.

He supposed that he really should have expected his parents’ reactions to the situation. They had big hearts, and while he expected that they would offer to help in any way possible, he wasn’t prepared for them to start making immediate plans to help the sisters, having only met one of them to begin with.

Cliff was already working on a way to free up some time to look at Anna’s car, and Bulda was digging through the cabinets to find one of her healing crystals for the sisters the moment Kristoff finished speaking. Of course in this he talked both of his parents down.

He reminded his mother that not everyone was as open to alternative medicine as she was, and also explained that he had already planned to ask Anna if she wanted him to take a look at her car. He had a feeling that it was going to be a fairly simple fix, but promised to call his father immediately if he needed help. He also ceded to send Bulda’s offers for not only her talents, but also for anything else the girls might need.

Ultimately they had sent him off with their love and one of his mother’s “world famous” apple pies. His siblings gave him hugs and kisses before he left, insisting he return soon. As he stepped out the door Crystal handed him a pink friendship bracelet and a crayon drawing for Anna, telling him that he’d better make sure that she got it or she wouldn’t ever share her chocolates with him ever again, not even on his Birthday.

It was just starting to get dark when he pulled his truck into the driveway. The weight of the world seemed to slide off his shoulders for a moment as he realized that he wouldn’t have to drive anywhere for at least the rest of the night. It was a small blessing.

He left the pie in the passenger seat along with the little bracelet and drawing from Crystal. He would bring them to Anna in a few minutes, but first he needed to check on Sven. Of course he had taken care of him before heading home, and Kai had been kind enough to care for him the night before, but he really hadn’t spent any real time with the furry beast since he left to bring Anna to the fair.

As soon as he opened the door to his house, Sven was there. The massive creature all but tackled him in sight, and despite his exhaustion, Kristoff found Sven’s energy calming. He was always excited to see him come home, and that made everything okay.

To return the kindness, Kristoff found it in him to scratch behind Sven’s ears and gave him a friendly pat before walking into the kitchen to grab his leash. He figured that if he was going to bring the pie over to Anna, he might as well take Sven over, then head out for a walk before it got too dark.

“Hey buddy,” he said as he clipped the leash to his collar with a metallic click, “Want to see Anna?”

The dog’s ears perked up, and the velocity of his tail wag drastically increased to the point at which his whole body seemed to shake in excitement.

Sven loved Anna almost as much as he loved Kristoff, and despite knowing her for a very little time, Kristoff suspected every now and again that the furry beast loved the red head equally to him and his family. Not that he could blame him, the more time he spent with Anna, the more he was feeling it too.

They were out the door quickly enough, stopping by the car to pick up the gifts for Anna before walking across the street to her home. Sven excitedly ran up onto Anna’s front porch, tugging Kristoff behind him so that Kristoff ultimately ended up in front of her front door.

“Geeze Buddy, you’re excited.”

“I can’t help it! You said we’d see Anna!” Kristoff responded back to himself as the dog turned his head slightly.

“We will Bud.”

He held his hand up to knock on the door, but stopped short. When he had left Anna earlier, after bringing her home, she had seemed alright. A little shaken up, of course, but she had generally seemed okay. He wasn’t sure if that had changed since he left, and he wasn’t sure if she even wanted to see him right now.

His hand shook as it hovered before the door. Normally he was very self-assured about his actions, but when it came to Anna, he wasn’t sure of what to do. He wanted to make her happy, regardless of his own feelings, and that terrified him in ways he couldn’t put into words.

Luckily he didn’t have to.

Sven bumped into him, sending his fist into the door with a smack.  
He tipped over, but regained his balance after using Sven’s back to counter balance himself.

“Traitor.” He said under his breath.

Sven simply stared up at him, head tilted as if he had done nothing. Sometimes he did the exact opposite of what Kristoff wanted, but regardless he always did what needed to be done.

He could hear the footsteps from the other side of the door, but he knew that it was too late to do anything but stand before it awkwardly, the pie and etcetera that he had been lucky to hold onto, outstretched before him in offering as Anna opened the door.

Her hair was ponytailed back, strands having fallen out of form were gathered around her face, and in the setting sun, she glowed. Her eyes were full of joy when she looked upon her visitors, the opposite of what Kristoff had expected.

“Hey Sven!” she announced cheerfully as she scrunched down to pet the furry creature.

Kristoff simply chuckled, of course she was happy to see the dog.  
“Hi Anna!” he announced in the goofy tone he reserved for conversations with Sven.

He knew that Anna found it amusing, and he loved to see her smiling. He was infatuated with her, particularly when she smiled. There was something about the way she was that made his heart ache, but it wasn’t a pain the likes of which he had ever felt before. There was something in her smile that felt amazing, like a realization that the aching he felt simply meant there was a space to be filled in his chest that he had never noticed before. It was bittersweet.

She laughed and pet the dog further, looking up to Kristoff and taking note of the pie, she tilted her head in curiosity.

Pulled from his thoughts by her gaze, Kristoff realized that he was still holding out the pie to her rather dumbly.

“Oh, uh, my family. Yeah, they were worried, and Mom made a pie, and Crystal, well she uh made you a bracelet and a picture. I told them that you didn’t want pie, but they wouldn’t have it, so um, here?”

Anna took the pie and laughed, her cheeks going as red as he was sure his were.

“Oh trust me there is no situation where I would ever refuse free pie!”

“What if it was poisoned?”

She looked at him for a moment as though she were deep in thought.

“Unless they told me it was poisoned beforehand, probably yes.”

He shook his head.

“Didn’t your Mom and Dad teach you not to take pie from strangers?”

With a brow quirked, she extended the pie back towards him, playfully inching back into the entryway.

“Yes they did,” her voice was playfully wary, and she held the pie out as if it were truly poisoned.

“I promise my Mother didn’t poison that pie.”

Squinting her eyes, she pulled it back towards herself and removed the top foil to smell it.

“So this wasn’t made with poisoned apples?”

“No Snow White, you’re fine. Besides, I’m not a stranger.”

Anna smiled again at that, “You’re right about that.”

Pausing and looking down at Sven she sighed, “I’d invite you both in, but Elsa just went to bed, and even though she’s upstairs I’m trying to keep the noise down. She’s had a rough day, and also, I’m pretty sure the dog hair wouldn’t be a good idea for her. No offense Sven.”

“None Taken,” Kristoff responded for Sven as the dog’s body language seemed to imply the same.

“I feel bad though, you guys brought me a pie and, oh a friendship bracelet how cute! It would be rude to just take it and not talk a while, right.”

Kristoff waved her off and shrugged.

“Not a big deal, I have to take Sven for a walk anyway, we just wanted to stop by for a minute.”

Anna looked up at the sky and saw that it was almost sunset, she liked walking during the pre-dusk hours when the air cooled down enough to be comfortable and the sky was filled with color.

“Well if you’ll let me grab my shoes and a hoodie, I could come along. We really haven’t had much of a chance to talk since yesterday. I, uh, well a lot happened.”

With that Kristoff agreed to wait a few moments for her to get ready, and leaned against her porch railing. He could hardly complain about having her company, though he couldn’t help but be a bit worried about what exactly it was that she wanted to talk about. Of course he knew that she was referring to the events of the fair before they had been so rudely interrupted, He only hoped that she didn’t think of them as a mistake. They had agreed that whatever they were going to be, that they were going to get there slowly, but he hated to think that maybe she didn’t want to go any further than where they stood. Of course he would respect her regardless of her decision, but he hoped that she was feeling the same things he was.

“Ready?” she asked as she tugged the zipper half way up her plain black hooded sweatshirt.

“Yeah, just wanted to take a walk around so Sven can get some exercise.”

“You have someplace in particular in mind?” she asked, looking up again at the sky, “Because there’s a park not too far from here that overlooks the lake, and the sunset looks beautiful from there.”

Kristoff patted Sven on the head and descended from the porch with Anna in tow.

“That sound good to me,” he said just as Anna grabbed the hand in which he wasn’t holding Sven’s leash.

They walked along in silence for a short time, the comfortable stillness of the evening air only occasionally interrupted by a passing car, or children playing rebelliously late in their yards as mothers tried and failed to shoo them in for the night. Summer was on its deathbed, and it was one of the last warm nights before the seasons changed. Soon Anna would be back to taking classes, and Kristoff would be traveling up into the forests even more often. It seemed that the work of a woodsman was never done, at least until winter when his work focused more on small side jobs and helping his parents rather than his own business.

Anna was the first to break the silence, her voice sounding timid and weak.

“I’m glad your truck is back. I’m really sorry, and I’ll pay for the tires.”

Kristoff shook his head.

“Nothing for you to be sorry for, my Dad had replacement tires hanging around in a storage shed anyway. I’m just glad that it was just my truck.”

Anna smiled and laughed lightly, “Don’t pretend you don’t love that truck more than anything in the world.”

“Well maybe the stuff with the truck doesn’t bother me because I love you more.”

Kristoff nearly hit himself. He had just told her the day before that he liked her, that he wanted to take things slow, but here he was, mere feet from the park that they planned to visit, confessing his feelings and taking things twenty times faster than intended.

Anna, to her credit, didn’t miss a beat.

“Well maybe I love you back and worried that you wouldn’t want to see me anymore after everything that’s happened.”

They both stood, a foot apart, looking at each other like each couldn’t make sense of what the other had said.

“Why would I ever want to stop seeing you?” Kristoff asked, closing the space between them quickly.

“Why would you want to see me?” she looked away shyly as she asked it, stray hairs falling over her eyes as she looked away from him.

“Hey!” he said, pulling her into his arms as Sven sat dutifully by his feet, “I want to see you every day, alright? You’re probably the friendliest and kindest person I’ve ever met. For God’s sake Anna you take care of animals for fun, and you’re always worried about everyone else. You’re amazing, stop worrying. I love you.”

The second time he said it, he felt it. The gravity of it, what it meant to say something like that to a girl he had only just recently met, but one that felt like he had known forever.

“I─ I think I might love you too. I mean really love you. But this is all just so─”

“Fast?” he asked, trying not to let the sound of his heart folding in on itself creep into his voice.”

“Amazing,” she corrected, looking up into his eyes, “I’m not used to amazing.”

“Can I kiss you?” He asked, his voice low and barely audible.

He hardly realized that he had let the thought slip out of his mind and out through his mouth, but before he could take it back, or apologize, she touched his cheek.

“If you don’t, I will.”

It wasn’t clear to them who initiated the kiss, but they were both into it from the moment their lips met and their eyes closed. It was gentle, slow, and soft, but there was a quiet passion to it. It was a kiss to say everything that they couldn’t find words for. It was a “I love you” kiss, a “this is scaring me too” kiss, and a “this is worth us both fighting for” kiss. And when it broke, the meaning remained.

Kristoff’s forehead tipped forward gently, meeting with hers as they both wrapped their arms more tightly around the other.

“We can watch the sunset another day,” Anna mused softly mere moments before she stood up on her toes to kiss him again.


End file.
